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

Dear Seattle

About This Entry:

The story of Seattle often gets pigeonholed around stereotypical activities and descriptions of the city – namely rain, coffee, a fish market and the Space Needle. Yet, Seattle is rich with textures, characters and soul. It’s a city that sticks with you and has a transformative effect on you no matter how much time you spend here.

In fact, one truth come's up time and again: people who've really experienced the city can share the true depth of this city better than anyone else can. As it's often their home, they carry a vivid love for the city, know it intimately and connect to it deeply.

The authenticity of those stories connect to our audience – Advenculturists - as we affectionately refer to them. Adventurous, creative, optimistic, and forward-thinking – this group craves genuine, rich, and deep experiences. For them, travel (and life) is about truly exploring stories – of people, cultures, local traditions, and rituals. Authentic stories are like magnets for this group. But as this is also an audience whose real thrill lies in anything that’s intellectually stimulating – we knew just any old story wouldn’t do.

Rather than us telling people the effect the city can have on you, we wanted to put the power in the hands of esteemed locals to share the true and personal stories of how Seattle has moved them. We aimed to curate a collection of love letters that would not only broaden people’s perceptions of the city, but entertain and engage them along the way.

Given that over 2/3 of travel decisions leverage video at every point along the “planning journey”, we knew these love letters had to be captured with full sight, sound and motion.

Our objectives included sharing more of Seattle’s story by driving viewership on VISITSEATTLE.tv on YouTube, and driving engagement around the city’s story, measuring watch time of these love letters, that showed how much time people were effectively spending with the city before stepping foot here.

Ultimately, these behaviors could lead to filling more rooms, more often: the true indicator of our success.

Campaign Strategy:

Syndicated research showed our audience was drawn to both well-crafted dramatic series as well as documentaries. We combined that insight with the idea of a traditional love letter.

Partnering with SundanceTV, a network known for high quality programming, we joined forces with four diverse and notable filmmakers from Seattle and asked them to share their #LoveLetterToSeattle through a series aptly named: Dear Seattle.

Each filmmaker brought their personal connection to the city to life through their unique cinematic approach. Famed musician, and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl’s love letter was to a city that birthed many firsts for him – from bands to love. Multiple MTV VMA winner and Grammy nominee Jon Jon Augustavo told a story about the impact of the city’s diverse culture in building a sense of self in Just a Kid From Seattle. Filmmaker and music video director Josh Taft’s love letter, Reality is Gorgeous, celebrated the inspiration he gains from the city’s natural surroundings. Award-winning filmmaker Megan Griffiths showcased the peace she finds in the city’s ability to blend urban and nature seamlessly, in The Sound.

Initially screened at an event at the Sundance Film Festival, each filmmaker shared their film and the story that inspired it during a live Q&A. Each story added depth to the city’s vibrant and unique tapestry. We complemented the screening with a Seattle themed party designed to leave a Seattle imprint on screening attendees – including music from Robert DeLong, Emerald City cocktails and food from Chef Jeffrey Vance.

After launch, each film had their own debut throughout the year, encouraging viewership on VISITSEATTLE.tv. Film trailers aired on Sundance TV and IFC as well as through VOD channels. We augmented broadcast by distributing trailers through pre-roll and native video placements. And we amplified the campaign with social promotion. In addition to living on VISITSEATTLE.tv and on YouTube , each episode was also promoted through the Visit Seattle FireTV channel to capture Advenculturists’ cord cutting behaviors.

Sundance also created an online home for these films, leveraging co-branded social and display to drive traffic from their channels.

Results:

Dear Seattle was the top viewed series on VISITSEATTLE.tv in the first quarter of 2018. As a series it has garnered over 11 million views with over 20 million minutes of watch time. That’s over 37 years-worth of time spent with the city in a year.

Over half of these views came from mobile devices, delivering an average retention rate of 63% across all videos. That means people were spending nearly 4 minutes on average with Seattle – on their phone.

The series generated more than 4 million earned media impressions covering the series in publications ranging from Billboard Magazine to AFAR.

The focus on content overall helped drive a record high business year for Visit Seattle, achieving record visitor numbers (+3.9 percent from year prior) and record occupancy of 84.2 percent.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The objectives and vision surrounding Visit Seattle's "Dear Seattle" campaign were clearly outlined in the application. It was immediately clear to judges that the campaign was designed to move the viewer's thoughts away from the Seattle stereotypes. Visit Seattle deliberately outlined a new approach to grab (and hold) a viewer's attention. Through thoughtful storytelling and visuals, the campaign was able to showcase the pulse of locals living in this beautiful city with video. Visit Seattle did a great job expanding on success metrics and really giving context to the meaning of the numbers. The campaign results were presented in a refreshing way—more than "37 years-worth of time [was] spent with the city in a year." That statistic is far more impactful that simply sharing the 20 million minutes of watch time the campaign secured. It was noted that this campaign and content assisted in a second-highest business year for Visit Seattle.