Elevating Culture Through Marketing To Inspire Visitation
How this Case Study may be relevant to you: This project showcases a collaborative project with TAP and TGW Studio, and our combined ability to deliver strategy, website development, creative templates and branding recommendations.
We reintroduced Akwesasne Travel, revamping its brand and inspiring cultural travel through a comprehensive PESO campaign
Situational Analysis
Akwesasne, a cross-border region in NY and Canada, is home to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. To promote Akwesasne as a cultural destination, the Tribe established Akwesasne Travel. The organization showcases Mohawk history, values, cuisine, events and group travel opportunities. In 2024, Akwesasne Travel partnered with TAP and TGW Studio to refresh its website and develop press kit, email, digital ad and event marketing materials supporting paid, earned, shared and owned media efforts.
The Challenge
How do we position Akwesasne as a premier tourism destination that enriches the lives of visitors who engage with its regional culture?
Objectives
- Increase awareness of and interest in Akwesasne Travel as a tourism destination
- Inspire visitation to Akwesasne, both with consumers and travel trade entities
- Educate potential visitors about the Akwesasne Mohawk Culture
Strategic Insight
Takeaways from research and stakeholder input deepened our understanding of the importance of spotlighting the Akwesasne Mohawk community to help drive visitation by meeting travelers’ desires for authentic cultural experiences. This understanding led to the insight:
“Akwesasne gives travelers a place to find meaning, connection and tradition.”
Photo Credit: Akwesasne Travel
Strategic Approach
- Develop a website that heightens the awareness of Akwesasne Travel, the destination, and its key assets with experiential/inspirational content
- Develop a paid strategy for increasing awareness, traffic, and engagement on Meta and Google
- Create newsletter content that highlights experiences found in Akwesasne, putting priority focus on cultural travel aspects
- Develop press kit materials, including story starters that highlight new ways to travel and engage with cultural experiences
- Develop a PESO strategy for marketing local events and timely experiences
- Through website content, educate consumers about Akwesasne Mohawk Culture
Tactics
- The Barcelona Principles: the framework used by the PR industry to effectively evaluate placements and measure results. By identifying which factors matter most to Akwesasne Travel, a customized scoring system will measure your goals, audiences, and overall sentiment
- Press Kit Materials: including story starters to inspire coverage, a fact sheet with key destination highlights, and a media gallery of high-quality visual assets
- Content Calendar: develop a monthly content calendar that outlines the upcoming email communications to each audience
- Meta Advertising: increases messaging frequency, driving visitors to the campaign landing page, and helping to grow the Akwesasne Travel email list and page
- Paid Search: Google pay-per-click ads will reach people actively searching for getaways in Upstate New York, cultural experiences, authentic experiences, outdoor trips, Indigenous culture, and more
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Retargeting: Banner ads targeting recent website visitors or people who recently searched target keywords, to encourage them to return and continue exploring
Results
Results
As a result of this initial scope, Akwesasne Travel entrusted us with a new project to reimagine their brand across digital platforms and print collateral. These refreshed materials are currently in development.
Photo Credit: Akwesasne Travel
Result Highlights
The campaign blended digital marketing, media relations and content creation while empowering Akwesasne Travel with tools for consistent outreach. TGW redeveloped the website to highlight culture and tourism, while TAP created email and media outreach strategies, templates and calendars, a paid media plan, and event marketing resources. Branding and print collateral are in progress.
