National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Broadcast Advertising: Television

Travel Michigan, Michigan Economic Development Corporation

Pure Michigan 2.0

About This Entry:

Over the last decade, Pure Michigan aimed to draw people from their overdeveloped, strip-malled, Starbucks-filled world to a place that’s magical, mythic and authentic. This iconic campaign has transported viewers out of their everyday life and showed them the way life should be. A place with abundant natural beauty, charming small towns and unique experiences – all things pure.

To connect with a new trend influenced audience, we added a layer to our campaign highlighting timely things in Michigan’s culture – Detroit’s comeback story, a booming craft beer industry and the revitalization of the road trip. We call this Pure Michigan 2.0.

We created three new television spots to bring that new feeling to life. “Soul” focuses on the city of Detroit and its art, culture and foodie vibes. “Along the Way” highlights a road trip of four millennials winding their way through the state. “Small Batches” concentrates on the love story of Michigan craft beer.

For three months in the spring, these spots ran nationally to give travelers a preview of what’s new in Michigan and why they need to travel here to experience it for themselves. Our core objectives are to reinforce Michigan as a national travel destination, improve our national image and increase regional travel to the state. The target is a travel planner, specifically a woman 25-54.

Campaign Strategy:

Creative Approach: Moving from Timeless to Timely
Pure Michigan television creative isn’t a laundry list of things to do in the state – it provides an emotional pull to the consumer. The campaign elicits that feeling you get when on a vacation – the emotion you feel when sitting on the lake, looking at fall colors, etc.

We took a different approach when creating “Soul”, “Along the Way” and “Small Batches”. This was done as part of the next evolution of Pure Michigan – Pure Michigan 2.0. The goal is to keep the emotional feel of a usual Pure Michigan ad, but go deeper into the passion. The music was also updated in a few select spots – it’s more lively and upbeat, but is still based on the original Cider House Rules track. Airing both traditional spots and Pure Michigan 2.0 spots together creates a comprehensive view of Michigan and what it has to offer.

Methodology:
We evaluate the campaign using third-party research that measures consumer response to the campaign after it launches. It’s conducted among a representative sample of adults, 18+ years of age. Survey respondents are members of a consumer panel and questionnaires are emailed to them for self-completion. Respondents are further qualified as ‘travelers,' meaning they have taken a trip anywhere in the past three years and intend to take a day and/or overnight trip anywhere within the next two years. Travelers are the base for this study’s analytics.

Results:

Eight years ago, Michigan launched a national cable television campaign for the first time in the state’s history. During that first year, the national advertising brought over 680,000 visits to the state and $250 million in spending. Today we’ve more than tripled the number of annual visits to Michigan as a result of the campaign.

Objective 1: Reinforce Michigan as a national travel destination.
Results – Trips to Michigan and spending generated by national television advertising in 2016:
• 2.5 million trips were generated to Michigan by national advertising.
• A 19.04% increase over 2015.
• Those visitors spent $870.6 million in the state.
• That spending produced $60.9 million in incremental state taxes.
• Each ad dollar put $6.81 back in state treasury (ROI).

Objective 2: Increase regional travel to the state.
Results – Trips to Michigan and spending generated by national television advertising in 2016:
• 2.6 million trips were generated to Michigan by regional advertising.
• Those regional visitors spent $661.8 million in the state.
• $15.1 million more than in 2015, a 2.33% increase.
• That spending produced $46.3 million in incremental state taxes.
• Each ad dollar put $11.20 back in state treasury (ROI).

Objective 3: Improve Michigan’s image on a national level
Results: The impact of advertising on Michigan’s image in the national market dramatically improved after consumers viewed at least one Pure Michigan ad. Favorable opinions of Michigan improved as much as 25%!
• View Michigan as an exciting destination: grew from 20% to 41%
• View Michigan as popular: grew from 11% to 36%
• View Michigan as a family destination: grew from 23% to 41%
• View Michigan as unique: grew from 39% to 45%
• View Michigan as affordable: grew from 26% to 40%
• View Michigan as an entertaining destination: grew from 18% to 38%

Source: Third party research: Longwoods International 2016 Tourism Advertising Evaluation and Image Study. Released 2/2017.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

Travel Michigan really hit a homerun with this campaign. It is very current and capitalizes on current trends without being too literal. The methodology is clearly defined and well thought out. The strategy is clearly defined and the results are impressive. The program is innovative in its forward-thinking approach to capture people emotionally rather than listing things to do.