Best Travel Online Campaign

Pigeon Forge, TN is a happenin’ family spot, but as most spring/summer/fall destinations, winter can be slow for business. In its 22nd year, “Smoky Mountain Winterfest” (a series of fun events) promotes tourism from November – February. To promote travel to mom targets, we ran a 2-part digital campaign; part 1 with a holiday focus and part 2 for winter events after New Year’s. We developed a campaign-specific microsite that promoted the events, along with a contest to win a trip to Pigeon Forge (“plan your own trip and then win it”). We also collected leads for remarketing and promoted the PF Travel Guide (research shows that people who order the guide are more likely to visit AND spend twice as much in market than average). The campaign included outbound emails to targets, geo-targeted paid search and display ads on AJC.com, Meredith Group Network, Tripadvisor, CNN.com/travel, MomsForum.com (Glam Media) and Facebook promos. Weekly tracking reports allowed for optimization and reallocation if necessary. RESULTS: Over 54 million total impressions and 245,000 total clicks. CTR for outbound email alone was 11%. Winterfest is the largest campaign of the year, and outbound email drives significant traffic. Since 2009, Q1 website visits prompted by eMail have been up to 5x higher than other quarters. The campaign received 50,959 registrations for the contest/trip, 21,724 opt-ins and 19,435 travel guide requests. Winter ADR was up $5 from 2011 while travel to Pigeon Forge increased for the season, with winter occupancy up 6% from 2011 and 22% from 2010.

Contributors:

Executive Director, PFDOT:	Leon Downey
Marketing Mgr., PFDOT:	Sue Carr
CCO, USDM.net:	Clifford Ward
Dir. Web Dev., USDM.net:	Jason Hays
VP, Digital Media:	Ross Ramon
Media Coordinator:	Amanda Orrell
Media Traffic Manager:	Erica Hernandez

USDM.NET

Location: USA