Best Leisure Online Campaign

Pigeon Forge, TN is a perfect place for couples and families to get away and relax. Fall in the Smokies is beautiful and inspiring, with the changing leaves and crisp mountain air. It’s also less crowded than summer high season. To drive awareness and travel to Pigeon Forge, we developed two versions of the campaign – one with a couples focus and one for families – always with moms/females as the target audience. We developed a campaign-specific microsite that promoted the changing leaves and things to do, along with a contest to win a trip to Pigeon Forge. We also collected opt-in 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). This drive market campaign included outbound emails to targets, geo-targeted paid search and display ads on SouthernLiving.com, AJC.com, Meredith Women’s Network, Tripadvisor.com, HGTV.com, FamilyTravelFiles.com and Facebook promos. Weekly tracking reports allowed for optimization and reallocation if necessary. RESULTS: Over 27.9 million total impressions and 52,586 total clicks. CTR for outbound email alone was 10.45%. The campaign received 27,703 registrations for the contest/trip, 16,080 opt-ins and 11,767 travel guide requests. Monthly visitation to Great Smoky Mountain National Park (to see the colors) was up 8.6%. City revenues (including Amusement and Lodging) were up 7% over October 2011 and 10% year-to-date.

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