National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Branding and Integrated Marketing Campaign: State Marketing Budget Less Than $10 Million

Explore Minnesota Tourism

#OnlyinMN

About This Entry:

Flyover country. Frozen tundra. Nothing. These are all statements that could be used to describe Minnesota in 2014. Only 18 percent of Midwesterners described a Minnesota vacation as very appealing (Google Proprietary Survey, 2013), and without a clear destination or activity, it wasn't exactly the most obvious choice for a vacation. Enter the #OnlyinMN campaign, an advertising and marketing effort created to showcase the breadth of unique and authentic experiences Minnesota has to offer. Now, in the third year of the campaign, the challenge focused on building on the momentum of the campaign and transforming it in a way that kept the messaging fresh and still communicated the moments and unexpected experiences that only a Minnesota vacation can offer.

The campaign objectives were threefold:
• Achieve annual incremental visitation of 3.125 million.
• Achieve a 6-to-1 return on investment for our advertising.
• Generate annual incremental traveler spending of $320 million.

Our target audience consisted of two personas: The Spontaneous Adventurer and the Cultural Explorer. Proprietary research uncovered consumer media habits and lifestyle affinities that were essential to our knowledge of how this audience lived and traveled. Both groups of travelers are college educated, have families with children (young or grown), and are equally excited about fine dining and going to the theater as they are about hitting the bike trail or the golf course. Our target travelers are curious to discover what makes a destination unique and special — they want to experience Minnesota like the locals and are likely to share their travel experiences with friends and family, especially on social media.

Campaign Strategy:

The third year of the campaign brought an emotional shift, focusing less on the breadth of activities and experiences available in Minnesota and more on the depth of activities and the memories that form during a vacation only in Minnesota. After all, it is the memories created on vacation that you remember for a lifetime. The TV spots were evolved to fit the more emotional strategy by leveraging uniquely Minnesotan locations and the one-of-a-kind experiences that can be had there.

The next step was to create experiences that bring a taste of Minnesota outside its boarders and blur the line between reality and experiential using custom executions that broke through the clutter and allowed users to immerse themselves in Minnesota.

Trends show that people want to feel less like tourists and more like locals when they travel (Iconoculture, Travel Like a Local, April 2016). Capitalizing on this idea led to weaving a sense of immersion into the campaign via outdoor and digital tactics that inspire and motivate travel to Minnesota.

How do you convince those who have never considered Minnesota to take it for a test drive? Simple. Bring #OnlyinMN beyond its borders and ship pieces of the state to key growth markets like Chicago, Denver and Kansas City. Using lighting, sound and props, the MNstagram booths were mobile Minnesota experiences that showcased the state’s most iconic locations at sporting, cultural and food-related events frequented by the two target audiences. Passers-by could step inside Minnesota to rock out on the drums at First Avenue night club or paddle a wooden canoe through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, experiencing all the state has to offer first hand.

To support the larger-than-life MNstagram booths, Explore Minnesota leveraged a streaming and broadcast radio buy, print buy as well as a cross-device digital media plan focused on immersion to target travelers at scale throughout their trip planning process. Immersive digital content like panoramic banners, social carousel units and pre-roll video drove users to relevant and inspiring trip planning content on the Explore Minnesota website and encouraged further itinerary building.

Results:

Achieve annual incremental visitation of 3.125 million.
• Explore Minnesota exceeded 3.125 million incremental visits by 375K incremental trips, generating incremental visitation of 3.5 million.
Achieve a 6-to-1 return on investment of our advertising.
• The highest return on investment in brand history was achieved at 9-to-1.
Generate annual incremental traveler spending of $320 million.
• Explore Minnesota exceeded the goal by $68.8 million, generating a total of $388.8 million in incremental traveler spending.

Program Cost:
Production $624,948
Media $2,951,000
Total: $3,575,948

Why This Is A Finalist: 

This creative campaign highlights under-the-radar attractions and activities that not many travelers would know about Minnesota. The positive interactive experiences throughout the campaign are compelling, and open up new avenues in terms of attracting a new type of audience to Minnesota. The primary campaign blends seamlessly with digital and social media outreach, and the emotional creativity brought forth in the campaign was simple but highly effective.