Guiding Visitors to See the Bigger Picture of Outdoor Adventure
How this Case Study may be relevant to you:This case study shows how a destination can reposition underrecognized assets through research-led messaging, visitor-ready content and integrated digital marketing that builds measurable awareness and website engagement.
During the Go Beyond campaign, outdoor recreation page views increased 490% and digital ads generated 2.54 million impressions.
Situational Analysis
Tour Cayuga was actively driving tourism through promotion of history, culture, water, wine and rich history of equal rights heritage and Harriet Tubman.
The CVB wanted to add promotion of its vast outdoor assets through a campaign to position the county as an outdoor experience destination.
Tour Cayuga wanted to stand out in the market by attracting curious adventurers, wellness-focused travelers, and anyone looking to leave their comfort zone for unique outdoor assets like bow fishing, scuba diving, and hiking.
The Challenge
How do we position Cayuga County's outdoor assets uniquely from the surrounding areas to drive visitation?
Objectives
- Increase awareness of and interest in Cayuga County as an outdoor destination.
- Position the county’s outdoor assets uniquely from the surrounding Finger Lakes Region.
- Inspire visitors to practice responsible and sustainable travel practices.
- Increase visitation to Cayuga County’s communities for the enjoyment of the outdoor activities, wine industry, farm-to-table gastronomy and scenic drives.
Strategic Insight
“Cayuga County guides visitors to see the bigger picture through new, empowering experiences.”
As a brand actively involved in its education efforts, Tour Cayuga is able to provide information on its unique assets that weren't available elsewhere. Our team saw that demand for accessible adventure would help it stand apart with a "secret menu" of energizing outdoor activities.
Photo Credit: Cayuga County
Strategic Approach
With a focus on inspiring visitation through fresh, authentic experiences, TAP was tasked with creating a digital-first strategy to drive engagement across multiple platforms and audience segments.
- Develop online content that showcases the outdoor destination experience in Cayuga County.
- Showcase the variety of outdoor attractions through photo and video content.
- Place emphasis on outdoor assets that stand out from surrounding destinations.
- Show off the lush scenery as a backdrop for activities and assets.
- Promote Cayuga County as a sustainable destination, not overrun.
- Promote sustainable practices and information to encourage responsible traveler behaviors.
- Tie key messages to current travel trends.
- Highlight the additional attractions to show the combination of outdoor and relaxing activities.
Tactics
TAP executed a multi-channel digital strategy to target passion-based outdoor audiences in key drive and flight markets.
Messaging focused on accessibility, natural beauty, and trying new activities in a welcoming environment.
- Paid: Google, YouTube, Pinterest and CTV campaigns
- Earned: Incorporate Go Beyond messaging into current public relations efforts
- Shared: Highlight outdoor assets and incorporate Go Beyond messaging in current social media efforts
- Owned: Refreshed outdoor website content, ad landing page development, custom itineraries
Results
Top Results
The campaign generated over 10K views of Cayuga County’s outdoor recreation page, bringing it from 20th place to the 7th-most visited page on the Tour Cayuga website.
This represented a 490% increase in page views for the page YOY.
2.54 Million impressions from digital ads promoting outdoor assets.
A new webpage, with accompanying blog and itinerary was developed showing visitors how to travel responsibly and sustainably.
Photo Credit: Cayuga County
Result Highlights
- Content developed included 5 itineraries, 3 blogs and 6 webpages
- 15K views of outdoor-focused webpages
- 13K clicks from digital ads
- The mountain biking CTV campaign achieved a 96.98% completion rate at $0.04 per completed view