National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Niche Targeting

Made in TN Concert Series

About This Entry:

Millennials are the most valuable travel segment in the United States. They travel for experiences, not just memories. Their social feeds are a travel diary updated daily for their friends back home to see.

In addition to travel, they put a premium on surrounding themselves with their passions during regular life. Music is a key part of their day. And they’re not just listening casually, their attendance at music festivals doubled since 2014.

We needed something drastic to get Millennials’ attention. So, we turned Snapchat into a box office for a series of once-in-a-lifetime concerts that could only happen in Tennessee called Snap Your Way In. We teased, launched and celebrated unique concert experiences in Tennessee to Millennials. But the only way to obtain tickets was to follow us on Snapchat for a secret entry code.

Campaign Strategy:

We created three live music events around the state of Tennessee over the course of a year. Each show was in a unique venue and featured artists that are not only native to Tennessee, but influential. They promoted the shows on their owned channels and we also used paid media to spread the word. Admission was free to each event, but in order to secure a ticket, our audience had to be following us on Snapchat. There, on very specific dates and times, we released a password to unlock tickets—which was unprecedented for the platform. We then used online ticketing platforms to complete the process. We worked with our partners to gather results on our digital media performance and ticketing information, tracked earned media with Cision and TrendKite, pulled data directly from the Snapchat and other social platforms, and appended ADARA tracking pixels to all digital efforts to track search and booking conversions.

Partners included Flytevu for talent acquisition, production support and media coverage.

Results:

The campaign received 9.7 million Snapchat Views and 1.2 million Earned Media Impressions ($9.7 million in advertising value equivalency 2.7:1 AVE ROI on spend). For our content, there were 7.3 million online video completions and up 921,00 active engagements.

For the actual concert, ticket winners came from 43 states and five different countries. Tickets sold out in four minutes or less for every show. Most importantly, the percentage of Millennial travel increased from 26 percent to 27 percent.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

This campaign presented an excellent way to capture Millennials through Snapchat. The use of Snapchat made the campaign more compelling to its target audience. Connecting to Millennials’ desire for experiences and music was clever and exhibited great strategy overall. The campaign created a reason to visit Tennessee, forced engagement with their target audience, and earned coverage. The program was well thought-out and created partnerships with performers which extended their reach.