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

Montana Office of Tourism Search Campaign

About This Entry:

Everything the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development (MOTBD) does is grounded in research and strategy. To build this foundation, MOTBD fielded a brand study and discovered key insights, including strengths, weaknesses and high-potential markets. The two key targets for Warm were 'Educated Travelers' and 'Families.' Building on the original data and other supplemental information, we found this information about the two targets. The first being an educated traveler; college graduate with a household income of $75,000 or more and they would’ve taken 1 personal trip(s) in the last year. The second being family; they would’ve attended college, household income of 75,000 or more, married with kids and in the age range of 25-54.

The survey revealed that Montana's main weakness was lack of awareness. The state's key attributes - easy access to the great outdoors, outside adventure, and natural beauty - ranked highly for travelers, but few respondents were aware that Montana offered these amenities.

The study also identified niche audiences, including the “winter enthusiast.” While some Educated Travelers and Family targets fall into this category, it is a unique segment. Given that this niche segment supports a large component of MOTBD’s seasonal tourism economy, additional research was completed to build this profile. 4.6 percent of the U.S. population that participate in winter activities (downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding and/or snowmobiling in the past 12 months). They tend to have a higher income and 79 percent took a domestic trip, longer than one day, in the past 12 months. They were also more likely to travel throughout the winter months for cold-weather activities

With this knowledge we set out to raise awareness and visitor numbers by inspiring travelers throughout the year, across numerous platforms. Throughout all placements, creative focused around searching for moments. An actual search bar, mirroring search engines, was utilized, and where the search bar wasn't plausible, verbiage tied ads to that concept. The search bar was paired with pin-points that gave photo locations, informing visitors further. Each element of every ad came together to paint a full picture of Montana.

Campaign Strategy:

The Search Campaign was born after reviewing the brand survey information, layering on the three Montana brand pillars - adventure by day, relaxing hospitality by night; unspoiled beauty; and charming small towns - and then exploring various creative pathways. The final concept was selected because it illustrated the perfect mix of brand attributes, information, and unique creative elements to break through the noise of the tourism market and gain much needed awareness.

The creative featured locations from across the state and the imagery was used in social, print, out of home, digital, and earned media. TV and digital video included scenes and activities around Montana as well. Additionally, SEM, custom content and sponsored partnerships, radio, social media - paid and organic - and earned media efforts were also incorporated. We deployed this layered approach to keep the Montana brand front of mind with our target audiences, from planning their trip until arrival on the ground.

All digital activity, including SEM, digital banners/video, social ads, earned media placements (blogs, stories, etc.), and custom content/sponsored partnerships were closely monitored. Wherever possible we included tracking pixels to measure ad performance, website visits, and ultimately, arrivals to the state.

Social media tactics across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter allowed for a personal connection with potential visitors. Top initiatives included Facebook Live events, Facebook Canvas ads and social media influencer trips. Measurements for social success included impressions, engagements (including shares, comments and reactions), and site visits.

Earned media included feature stories, press releases, blogger partnerships and content amplification. The top success metric was overall brand impressions, but also included engagements related to select Earned Media efforts.
Hoffman York reviewed all media tactics on a monthly, quarterly and seasonal basis. Strategies that allowed for immediate adjustments, such as digital, social and SEM, were monitored even more regularly.

As TV, radio, print and OOH are harder to measure immediately, Visit Montana partnered with Destination Analysts to complete ROI studies on a regular basis, tracking ad recall, awareness and general perception of the Montana brand.

Results:

Reviewing the metrics after one year revealed that everything was working! On the digital front, there was a 38 percent increase in organic traffic. This was a huge driver in generating a record 2.8 million site visits in 2017. And, of those visits, more than 300,000 visitors clicked on a partner’s listing page, signifying they were ready to take the next step in researching their trip and ultimately booking. Most importantly, over 12.4 million out-of-state travelers visited Montana in 2017, making it a record-breaking year for tourism.

The FY17 Warm and FY18 Shoulder results were as follows; Warm had 45 percent of Educated Travelers and 53.9 percent of Family Travelers, whom felt they know Montana as a leisure destination “fairly” or “very well”. However42.9 percent of Family Travelers and 34.2 percent of Educated Travelers “will travel to Montana” in the next 18 months. They also found that 92.4 percent of Educated Travelers and 92.1 percent of Family Travelers decision to visit Montana was influenced by a recalled ad. During the fiscal year of 2018, Shoulder had 67.6 percent of Educated Travelers who were more likely to visit Montana for leisure in the next 18 months after seeing ads. They also had 68.8 percent of Educated Travelers whose decision to visit Montana was influenced by recalled ads.

There was a five percent increase in bed tax, eight percent increase in visitor spending, and record visitations to Glacier National Park and airports across Montana. We received billions of impressions on different social media platforms, television, print and streaming sites. Some of these sites were Pandora, 9.5 million, Hulu/Sling (3.47 million impressions), digital videos/banners (95 million impressions), earned media editorial coverage (6 billion impressions). Paid social brought 135 million impressions, 5.2 million engagements and 323,000 clicks to VISITMT.COM. Custom content/sponsored partnerships brought 13 million impressions and 31,000 clicks to VISITMT.COM. Our print promotion received 15.8 million impressions, Radio received 9.5 million impressions, Traditional TV had 55.6 million impressions and OOH received 31.4 million impressions.

The overall consumer marketing budget for 2017 was $9 million. Media campaigns accounted for approximately $5.5 million.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

Montana's campaign was fabulously conceived, and executed, and seemed to solve two key problems—not only raising awareness about Montana, but inspiring people to want to visit. The package told cohesive, quick, accessible stories, in a highly visual way. The creative focus on "moments" along with search bar pinpoints was unusual and unique. The campaign really captured the essence of Montana, with useful information about how to plan multiple trips to the state. The metrics were extremely impressive, with billions of impressions across Pandora, Hulu, paid social and video.