Situation & Challenge
Known for world class national parks, reflecting red rock landscapes and pristine public lands, Utah provides visitors with a one-of-a-kind outdoor experience. However, near the national parks, state parks and monuments, Utah sees heavy congestion and traffic jams during warm season travel with concentrated spending around points of interest.
Small, remote destinations often become overlooked and struggle to gain the attention of regional, national or global audiences. Paired with limited resources and stretched marketing budgets, local communities struggle to develop an international strategy where they can measure a positive and direct tourism impact.
Strategy
Herrmann Global entered into a partnership with the Utah Office of Tourism to help rural destinations across Utah increase their voice and attract a niche audience of domestic and international travelers. Our in-house content team created personalized content for each destination while our global Visit USA Parks brand ambassador created two detailed travel itineraries about the unique experiences off the beaten path throughout the state.
We translated the itineraries into French and German to run a hybrid domestic and international campaign including the markets: Belgium, France, Netherlands, DACH, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Using the following multi-phased strategy:
- We utilized visual content and eye-catching stories to target a global, but niche audience with the highest propensity for visiting Utah.
- We targeted the initial audience via Facebook and Instagram with posts and retargeting ads about each individual destination.
- We then identified the segment that interacted with the posts/ads and retargeted them to view either the Northern or Southern itinerary.
- We further refined our audience and retargeted the proven engaged travelers with a call to action to generate booking requests.
- The Utah Office of Tourism supported the development of this initiative and stepped in to help push the global travel audience to book with vetted tour operators. This targeting strategy allowed us to refine and activate a travel and booking audience.
Results
Due to the positive response from tour operators overseas, this approach has now been added to the overall international strategy where the Utah Office of Tourism can measure a path to conversion for international bookings. This community coop has grown to include 12 communities since its inception. As more communities join, the results continue to prove the effectiveness of collaboration and teamwork when targeting an international audience.
