Re-Introducing the Keuka Lake Wine Trail Passport to Inspire Year-Round Visitation
How this Case Study may be relevant to you: This campaign highlights TAP’s ability to generate product revenue and sales through tourism strategy and integrated marketing tactics.
We partnered with the Keuka Lake Wine Trail to reimagine its digital tasting passport and drive visitation to Finger Lakes wineries.
Situational Analysis
After two successful years of working with The Keuka Lake Wine Trail, promoting its Trail events, experiences and Trail Passport, Travel Alliance Partnership led the Trail in a Strategic Marketing Plan to re-evaluate its marketing efforts for continued success in 2025.
Using a mix of digital marketing, email marketing, and public relations, the Keuka Lake Wine Trail previously positioned itself in the marketplace and gained strong name recognition in key target markets and among key audiences. In 2025, the Trail wished to continue that success by reimagining and bolstering the Trail Passport—its main offering outside of three major events held each year.
The Challenge
How do we reposition the Keuka Lake Wine Trail Passport to inspire new interest and increase sales?
Objectives
- Revise and relaunch the Keuka Lake Wine Trail Passport with new positioning or offerings in Q1 of 2025.
- Increase sales of the KLWT Passport by 20% YOY Growth in 2025.
- Sell out three major KLWT Signature Events: Savoring Sweets, Wine & Cheese Lovers, and Handcrafted Holiday in 2025.
- Build KLWT brand awareness by 10% through online channel growth and list growth in 2025.
Strategic Insight
Considering current market trends and key research surrounding the Trail’s Product, Consumer and Competition, TAP developed a plan that inspired new and repeat interest in the Trail, increased sales of the Passport and events, and invited visitors to experience all of the member wineries along the Keuka Lake Wine Trail.
Based on our recommendations, the Keuka Lake Wine Trail launched not one but three new passport options, standardizing offerings across all member wineries and dropping the price point to better suit each audience. The new Tasting Passport, Glass Passport, and Paws & Pour Passport were targeted to different audiences—the new visitor looking to get a diverse tasting experience, the returning visitor looking to enjoy their favorite wineries, and the dog-friendly crowd looking to visit with their furry friend.
Photo Credit: Keuka Lake Wine Trail
Strategic Approach
TAP executed an integrated marketing strategy that included content development, digital marketing and public relations, intended to reach consumers in several ways as we launched the new passport offerings.
We revamped the website's Tasting Passport page to better showcase all three new options, with sub pages that dove deeper into the experience offered by each passport. This page was used as our primary destination for digital ads. We also created new copy for the Member Wineries page and Plan Your Visit page to better showcase how visitors could experience the Trail in unique ways.
We launched our digital advertising strategy using Meta and Google platforms to drive awareness, engagement and conversions. Meta campaigns included page likes, traffic, conversion and lead generation ads, targeting wine enthusiasts, regional travelers and select fly markets. Google search campaigns focused on high-intent keywords related to Finger Lakes wine tourism, passports and pet-friendly wineries. Messaging and creative were adjusted throughout the campaign to align with seasonality and performance insights.
Public Relations was used both to announce the new passport launch in local markets through a press release and media outreach—and to host several high-profile influencers who came out to the Trail to showcase the passport and experience firsthand.
Campaign Accomplishments
Through our work on the 2025 Keuka Lake Wine Trail Campaign, we successfully:
- Researched, reimagined and launched three new Trail Passport options in June, promoting these options throughout the remainder of 2025.
- Sold 449 Tasting Passports, 11 Glass Passports, and 42 Paws & Pours Passports for a total of 502 Passports—surpassing our original goal of 20% YOY Growth (target 343 Passports).
- Increased ticket sales at two major Trail events and sold out the third. While not a complete sell out as hoped, ticket sales did rise for the Trail overall in 2025.
- Built on brand awareness by growing the Keuka Lake Wine Trail Facebook Page, email list and driving qualified website traffic to the new Trail Passport page.
Results
Final Results
The campaign successfully drove traffic, leads, awareness, engagement and passport sales for the KLWT.
In 2025, the KLWT sold 449 Tasting Passports, 11 Glass Passes and 42 Paws and Pours for a total of 502 passes.
This is a 42% increase from 2024, when the Trail sold 178 Tasting Passports and 114 Paws & Pours for a total of 292 passes.
In 2025, we shifted focus to encourage more Tasting Passports and Glass Passes, and the effort resulted in more total passports sold.
Despite the decrease in the passport cost, the passports generated $21,936 in revenue in 2025, up 40% percent from 2024 revenue—a clear indicator that we were tailoring our offering to our audience as the needs of the consumer continue to evolve.
Photo Credit: Keuka Lake Wine Trail
Result Highlights
The campaign delivered on its strategic intent by pairing an easy, flexible passport experience "Your Experience, Your Way" with immersive wine trail storytelling—driving strong awareness, high-intent traffic, and efficient lead generation that reinforced the value of a refreshed Keuka Lake Wine Trail Passport and inspired visitation to member wineries.