Destinations Council Destiny Awards > Digital Campaign

Crowdsourced

About This Entry:

As a visitor, getting to know a city can be as easy as a quick Google Map search for its best attractions or a scan of the latest Yelp or Eater reviews for hot, trendy restaurants. In fact, as travelers today, we may rely on technology too much to guide us through new locales.

But, as our core audience – Advenculturists – know, getting to the heart of what makes a city great often takes knowing someone or talking to someone who lives there. 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.

So what if we could uncover the culmination of locals-only knowledge about Seattle over generations, and share it with people who find themselves in this incredible city? What if we could use that knowledge to upend the stereotypical perceptions of Seattle (coffee, rain and the Space Needle) to broaden people’s understanding about the city’s diverse culture?

We wanted to go beyond the utility of a map-like object with local recommendations to create a bigger, more entertaining campaign that would shine a light on the experiences Seattle locals love. And if we could showcase the friendliness of our community while doing it, even better.

Our goals were simple:
1. Drive visibility of Seattle as a relevant travel destination, as measured by content views.
2. Drive engagement around the city’s story, measured by watch time and time spent with online content, that signaled the time people were effectively spending with the city before stepping foot here.

Campaign Strategy:

48 hours. No phones. No plans. Only the people of Seattle.
That was the idea behind Crowdsourced – a digital campaign built on serendipity and the kindness of strangers.

We invited four first-time visitors on a spontaneous trip to Seattle. Each had 48 hours to explore the city’s various thriving cultural scenes and unpack what made them so special. The catch? No phones or pre-planning allowed. Armed only with a notebook and Polaroid camera to record their experiences, they had to rely on the recommendations of real Seattleites they met along the way to guide their adventure.

Then we documented their travels on film.

Mike Greenfield, co-host for the popular YouTube cooking show Brothers Green Eats, explored Seattle’s ‘food from the sea.’ After being dropped off for a tour at one of the region’s most famous oyster purveyors, Taylor Shellfish Farms, he made his way through the city asking locals for their stories and experiences with Seattle’s seafood and cuisine.

Brooklyn-based comedian, writer and director Robin Cloud explored the inclusive environment of Seattle through the wide range of unique LGBTQ-driven experiences that are woven into the community.

Locals helped Californian Lindsey Bro, creator of the popular Instagram handle Cabin Love, uncover some of Seattle’s most beloved locally made goods.

And Seattle locals sent New York comedian Josh Johnson to explore a wide range of outdoor activities, uncovering exactly why the city’s outdoor scene is not just breathtaking, but epic.

Then we used the digital space to share their truly offline experiences with others.

Each film was distributed online through YouTube, Vox Media properties (Vox, Eater, Curbed), paid social placements and across other digital media publishers.

We allowed people to dive deeper online. Each traveler’s experience culminated in the creation of a hand-made, crowdsourced travel guide that was housed on Vox.com and distributed via hard copy at key events.

Results:

Advenculturists soaked in every episode, each traveler’s experience and all the local recommendations.

In total, Crowdsourced earned 7,500,000 views and over 24,000,000 minutes of watch time. Over 1,000,000 of those views came from social alone. Our average view through rate was 84 percent, besting Vox norms by over 1.5x and YouTube norms by 2x. People spent over 5 minutes and 30 seconds online with the Seattle travel guides per visit.

This digital program contributed to 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: 

Visit Seattle had a powerful vision connected with the zeitgeist around human connection and a disconnect from technology. The overall effect was augmented by use of influencers (engaging with different segments) and 'old school' print content. They had clarity on their strategy and objectives. The content was totally in tune with their target audience. Their use of partner personalities was cleverly linked with associated partner properties. Anti-technology positioning is not new, but the concept and execution was highly innovative and engaging. They had strong metrics on engagement and impressions.