Best Events Online Campaign

Overview
Pigeon Forge, TN is a popular tourist destination, but as most spring/summer/fall destinations, winter can be slow for business. In its 23rd year, “Smoky Mountain Winterfest” (a series of fun events) promotes tourism from November – February. The annual campaign has proven to drive revenues and event attendance year after year.
Goals
We developed a campaign-specific microsite that promoted the events, 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).
Target Audience
The campaign included outbound emails to mom targets, geo-targeted paid search and display ads on AJC.com, Meredith Group Network, Tripadvisor, CNN.com/travel, MomsForum.com (Glam Media) and Facebook promos. Weekly tracking reports allowed for optimization and reallocation if necessary. Results
Over 27.7 million total impressions and 186,796 total clicks. Outbound email drives significant traffic, with 282,218 opens and a CTR of 56.44%. The campaign received 91,784 registrations for the contest/trip, 40,979 opt-ins and 35,192 travel guide requests. Early results indicate that winter occupancy looks to be 5% above last year. Winter visitor estimates (# of visitors) look to be at least 34% over last year.

Contributors:

Exec. Dir., Pigeon Forge Tourism:	Leon Downey
Marketing Director, Pigeon Forge Tourism:	Sue Carr
CCO, USDM:	Clifford Ward
Dir. Web Dev, USDM:	Jason Hays
VP Media, USDM:	Ross Ramon
Media Traffic, USDM:	Erica Hernandez

USDM.NET

Location: USA