Destinations Council Destiny Awards > Branding and Integrated Marketing Campaign: Destination Marketing Budget $2.5 Million to $5 Million

Visit Seattle

VISITSEATTLE.tv

About This Entry:

A year and a half ago, Visit Seattle started to think like a content network in an effort to disrupt both the traditional travel marketing approach, as well as the often surface level or stereotypical descriptions of Seattle such as rain, Starbucks, images of the fish market and the Space Needle. Visit Seattle wanted to celebrate the true rich and textured experience of the city.

For our audience, Visit Seattle focused on the advenculturists—travelers that not only love to travel and do so four to five times a year, but also love urban culture as much as nature and the outdoors. We knew that two-thirds of travelers watch videos during their trip planning process, from getting initial inspiration about traveling to choosing a city to looking for things to do in particular destinations. The more we could tap into their desire for stimulating and engaging entertainment, the more likely they would be drawn in and attracted to visiting Seattle.

As an organization responsible for fueling Seattle’s tourism industry, we saw the opportunity to use video as a critical marketing engine. Not only could video content be as progressive and immersive as the city itself, but it could help us raise the profile of Seattle among prospective travelers, driving an increase in consideration and searches; engage people in the story of Seattle by driving more visits to the site; and create conversation about Seattle through social channels. VISITSEATTLE.tv was born as the channel to house all of this new video, and became a destination for entertainment-based content about or inspired by the city.

Campaign Strategy:

Core to our efforts were the development of two hero content series. "Been There, Made That" was a short form documentary series that invited five accomplished makers from around the country,from a singer/songwriter to an ice cream maker to an architect, to visit Seattle for a multi-sensory experience and then challenged each to return home and create something, through their unique craft, inspired by our city.

The makers included Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Emily King, New York City-based children’s book illustrator, Chris Raschka, artisan ice cream maker, Jeni Britton Bauer, of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, award-­winning architect, Jimenez Lai, and Katie Deedy, owner of Grow House Grow narrative-inspired wallpaper. Their creative journeys came to life across five films hosted and distributed through VISITSEATTLE.tv and YouTube, paid social, and an integrated partnership with Vox.

The next series, "Project Five by Five," was simple but unique: asking five highly-regarded filmmakers to visit Seattle and create a short film that brought their unique perspective on the city, inspired by one of the five senses. It was an idea that showcased the real depth of the city through entertainment-based content, with Seattle as the star. Experiences ranged from the Taste of farm-to-cone ice cream, to the Scent of a Sasquatch, to the sounds that make us ask if Jimi Could Have Fallen From the Sky, to the textures you may Touch of Seattle, to the sights that helped Bruce Lee find his zen All at Sea. In partnership with SundanceTV, we worked with each filmmaker to plan for four to six weeks, then they prepped and shot their films in one 48-hour visit.

As the first destination marketing organization to produce films with SundanceTV, we took the opportunity to unleash our films on a big stage. Through a screening at Sundance HQ in Park City during the namesake film festival, we brought the directors together to share their stories, answer questions and unveil their films. From there, we distributed the films online at VISITSEATTL.E.tv, on YouTube, and on Sundance.TV. Social, video units and select broadcast spots served as drivers to the full films.

Results:

Since the launch of this content, visitor numbers have hit all-time highs, growing another 2.2 percent from prior years and delivering nearly 39 million visitors in the last year alone. Site traffic increased by 54 percent with increases of more than 75 percent from our ‘further out’ markets like New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas. Searches for Seattle on Google increased nearly 26 percent after the release of this content and we’ve seen a 70 percent lift in brand interest among those who have been exposed to our content.

Beyond that, we’ve driven 5.4 million views of our content and more than 907 days-worth of watch time on YouTube alone (more than one million minutes). "Been There, Made That" was named one of the Top 10 Branded Content initiatives of the year by AdAge and "Project Five by Five" was written up in USA Today, AdWeek, MediaPost, GeekWire. It was also named Best Branded Content of the month by Pressboard and was a finalist for the Tribeca X award for innovation in branded content marketing. All put Seattle’s soulful story squarely in the minds of our audience.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The content was original, and we loved the idea of taking individuals with completely separate backgrounds to experience Seattle with one of the five senses. The approach is non-traditional to showing the destination, and bonus points for having an emphasis on content and social rather than paid media. We loved the focus on real people and their experiences with city. The campaign does a nice job of highlighting how to have a different experience in a single destination, depending on your interests and passions. The campaign goals are clearly stated from the outset and corresponding metrics affirm those goals.