This presentation from John Edman of Explore Minnesota focuses on an overview of the tourism industry in Minnesota and delves into the specific programs and campaigns that Explore Minnesota have constructed and encountered.
7. * Weighted average results, rebalanced to reflect Minnesota’s distribution of properties by accommodation type.
* Weighted average results, rebalanced to reflect Minnesota’s distribution of properties by accommodation
8. * Weighted average results, rebalanced to reflect Minnesota’s distribution of properties by accommodation type.
9. * Weighted average results, rebalanced to reflect Minnesota’s distribution of properties by accommodation type.
* Weighted average results, rebalanced to reflect Minnesota’s distribution of properties by accommodation type.
10. * Weighted average results, rebalanced to reflect Minnesota’s distribution of properties by accommodation type.
11. Reason for Positive Outlook
• Good economy, marketing,
social media inspiration
cited as reasons for
positive outlook.
• Others noted several last
minute bookings and
younger travelers seeking
new and unique
experiences.
12. Vacation Home Rentals
• Some cited having to
compete with lower rates
or losing customers.
• Others addressed positive
impacts including more
visitors to area.
• Also some traditional
businesses use vacation
home rental services.
13. Workforce Issues
• Workforce issues a common
challenge
• Struggle to find and retain barrier
to success
• Many cited lack of available
workers
77. Tourism functions as the front
door for economic development;
if Minnesota is successful in
attracting visitors to the state,
those people view Minnesota
more favorably as a place to live,
work, start a business, attend
college, purchase a vacation
home and retire.
HALO EFFECT*
*Longwoods International – Minnesota 2017 Tourism Advertising Evaluation and Image Study
78. 0
A good place to live
A good place to start a career
A good place to start a business
A good place to attend college
A good place to purchase a vacation
home
A good place to retire
20 40
Percent Who Strongly Agree
Aware Unaware
+48%
+73%
+34%
+37%
+26%
+96%
IMPACT OF MINNESOTA’S 2017TOURISM CAMPAIGN ON
STATE’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IMAGE
79. 0 10
A good place to live
A good place to start a career
A good place to start a business
A good place to attend college
A good place to purchase a vacation
home
A good place to retire
20 30 40 50
Percent Who Strongly Agree
Visited Past Year Not Visited
+106%
+54%
+75%
+37%
+86%
+76%
IMPACT OFVISITATION ON MINNESOTA’S ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IMAGE
How is the campaign performing? Our ROI after last season showed the campaign generated 3.3 million trips
…with some headlines that alluded to Super Bowl festivities, but others that also communicated participation and engagement in winter activities.
Our partnership with the MN Ski Areas continued this year. We had television partnerships with all 4 local networks on their weather programming, plus movie theater advertising, digital, billboards, targeted print, signage at light rail stations, & a sweepstakes with 32 prizes donated by the ski area association members.
So let’s look at creative executions. Last summer we concentrated on conveying a fear of missing out on all the events happening throughout summer. This year, we pick up right where we left off but broadening beyond events. This is a good example of that, as well as the juxtaposition of outdoor and urban experiences that are directed at our 2 audience targets.
Beyond broadcast, we also deliver our television spots via pre-roll and premium video placements, and new this year we include OTT – or Connected TV – platforms – these are the streaming options like Hulu & Roku & Amazon Fire that are popular with people who’ve disconnected from cable & satellite services. OTT is growing exponentially year over year, including 29% in the MSP marketing over the past 2 years. We heavy up OTT buys in markets where TV is expensive in order to offset those costs and make the campaign look bigger for less.
Digital is through a variety of fixed placements with sites such as trip advisor and weather.com, as well as programmatic targeting.
Digital takeover units let us showcase numerous activities that each link to specific information pages on the website.
It’s a strong engagement driver and allows consumers to self-select their activities of interest.
Engagement is high with this interactive unit that allows you to illuminate the Northern Lights. They also convert at amazing rates.
Both disruptive & engaging, we’re trying a mobile gaming ad unit like we’ve never done before.
Expectations are high that users will want to keep improving their performance and be deeply engrossed!
We do a lot of paid social media and recently have started doing a series of text videos. We celebrated Prince attractions in April, but have also recently featured the SPAM museum, fishing, and next up is the Worlds largest Candy Store in Jordan.
Our messaging showed a diversity of travel opportunities and both created a sense of urgency by showing events happening today or this week, and allowed for planning by looking ahead to the next month.
Lifestyle and niche magazines are still important to our audiences. We buy top-tier magazine titles on a geo-targeted basis with a strategy to balance our outreach to both the Cultural Explorer and Spontaneous Adventurer
Just a few samples of layouts we’re using this season. We’ll use a variety of creative to make sure we are inspiring both of our target audience segments.
Digital billboards are running in our growth markets to drive awareness and curiosity.
They give us a lot of flexibility to showcase diverse creative and messaging that we can tailor specifically to each market.
We are still talking about events this season and using many of our digital and social assets driving to our campaign landing page that is curated & continually updated with a sampling of unique events statewide, using some of our campaign creative to create a cohesive experience.
Internally, Explore Minnesota leads 40 cooperative marketing programs that are available to tourism industry businesses. These are a few examples of co-op print but options also include TV, OOH, digital, print & most uniquely…
…our monuments. The big monument launched last year at X Games and our mini-monument debuted during the Super bowl festivities. Both are now part of our co-op program and available for industry partners to reserve for your own activation.
We have a thriving area in partnerships with big names like Gopher Sports and MN United, …
But also with names you might not know like the Minnesota Theater Alliance – a new partner this year…
And the MN Ski Areas Association which is becoming a successful, ongoing legacy partner. continued this year.
We also have several partnerships with other state agencies, including DNR, Historical Society, MN Grown and the Lottery.
Wherever possible we leverage the power of PR. We do proactive outreach, as well as respond to many inquiries each week for story ideas, interviews, video or photography assets, and more. In 2017, we tracked nearly 4.6 billion media impressions due to our PR efforts.
