Destinations Council Destiny Awards > Branding and Integrated Marketing Campaign: Destination Marketing Budget $1 Million to $2.5 Million

Moab Area Travel Council

Take Me to Moab

About This Entry:

This double-page spread with a pull-out brochure about Moab, Utah was intended to inspire visitors to visit two national parks in one extraordinary destination. We wanted to reach potential visitors with a HHI of $100,000 or more, outdoor enthusiasts of all types, singles, families with children and couples. The campaign included a 12-page, full color, pull-out brochure placed in the April 2016 issues of Alaska Beyond Magazine. With the Beyond magazine cover depicting Arches National Park in the same issue, it made for a spectacular inspirational piece. The printed brochure is of excellent quality, as well as the actual Beyond magazines. The magazine was to be distributed in the seat pocket of all Alaska Airlines flights during April. A separate URL, TakeMeToMoab.com, was secured to track the level of interest through December 31, 2016. Through December 31, 2016, there were over 14,000 unique visitors to www.discovermoab.com.

Campaign Strategy:

We worked with Alaska Airlines, Journal Graphics and Sunset Magazine for this campaign. The 7x7 brochure was completed, and 350,000 were printed for insertion in three magazines: Alaska Beyond Magazine, Horizon Airlines and Sunset Magazine in Northern California. The project was supported by co-op funds from the Utah Office of Tourism Tourism Marketing Performance Fund (TMPF), and Cafeteria Program, which supported 50% of the funding to showcase Moab through this campaign.

Results:

By generating activity to the unique URL, this campaign was extremely successful. We received over 14,000 unique web visits to the TakeMeToMoab.com URL.

Google statistics from Discover Moab for Northern California resulted in 5,803 new users, an increase of 5.87 percent. New sessions to discovermoab.com for Northern California increased by 5.43 percent. Visitation from cities in California saw significant increases, with arrivals from Arden increasing by 57 percent, Vacaville arrivals increasing by 13 percent, Oakland by 11 percent, Sunnyvale by 77 percent and Sacramento by three percent. Lodging properties in Moab saw overall California stays averaging 3.4 percent. Sunset Magazine saw the number of California residents' requests for information from the advertisement increase by 77.06 percent.

The total number of nights for out-of-state lodging and accommodations occupied as a result of this campaign or project was 4,188. The average cost of lodging and accommodations was $150. Revenue from out-of-state lodging and accommodations following the campaign was $628,200. The average out-of-state party size was 2.3 people. The number of out-of-state visitors expected was 9,632.4 people. The average out-of-state visitor length of stay 3.26 days. The average spending per person per day on things like transportation and meals, but excluding lodging and accommodations, was $130. All travel related expenditures, excluding lodging and accommodations, amounted to $4,082,211. The total economic impact as a result of this campaign was an impressive $4,710,411.12.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The production quality of the campaign is top shelf, and the visual alone inspires interest. The overall objective and strategy were well thought out, and the metrics from the campaign were impressive. The choice of Alaska Airlines and Sunset Magazine as partners was excellent, based on the target audience. The methodology was very clear, and it was highly successful based on reported results. The ROI was excellent on this campaign, and the focus on metrics was a very important part of how Moab Area Travel Council was able to prove the campaign’s ROI.