WanderLove
OVERVIEW
The WanderLove campaign was created in the summer of 2020 as a way to promote safe, low-risk travel experiences in the wake of Covid-19.
The goal of this campaign was drive immediate economic impact in Virginia communities by inspiring travel among in-state and drive market audiences.
APPROACH
Research indicated that while people were feeling scared and anxious to travel, they also missed taking a vacation and were in need of a break from their stressful lives.
“Road Trips” ranked high as a safe way to re-enter the travel space with 40 percent of Americans indicating they would take a road trip this year. Survey results also showed that travelers were seeking safe, close-to-home destinations that allow for social distancing and access to open spaces like beach trips, outdoor recreation and rural experiences.
Based on these findings, the WanderLove campaign was created to position road trips in Virginia as a safe and accessible re-entry into travel, by highlighting additional low-risk experiences such as outdoor recreations, hidden gems, small towns and LOVEworks along each route.
CREATIVE APPROACH
Wanderlust is defined as a “strong desire to travel” which we felt perfectly captured the feeling that most people were experiencing in 2020. By shifting the campaign title to “WanderLove”, we more closely aligned with our brand and allowed us to define the core message as a “strong desire to travel in Virginia.”
From the creative standpoint, we wanted travelers to feel joy and excitement by picturing themselves on a road trip. So we partnered with local creatives to capture first-person, immersive videos as they traveled from their homes to locations around the state. Infused with UGC clips and off-the-cuff moments, the resulting video series provided a fun and spontaneous glimpse of families, friends and couples traveling safely on Virginia road trips.
The videos provided travel inspiration then directed viewers to companion blogs and the website to plan their own trip.
PAID MEDIA STRATEGY
The videos and itineraries were promoted through a robust social media strategy, utilizing Pinterest and YouTube as the main channels. We also planned a strong presence on Google Search, utilizing keywords such as road trips and scenic drives to capture audiences and drive them to our website. Print ads were placed in local magazines along with a TV spot on local broadcast across Virginia.
RESULTS
Our goals for this campaign were to unite our industry, increase awareness among in-state audiences and to generate immediate impact through visitation.
From a partner perspective, we had a total of 90 partners participate in the WanderLove campaign. Through the grant, VTC funded $866,000 and partners matched that amount with a total $3,142,688 in additional funding for the campaign. This resulted in a $3 to $1 leverage of VTC dollars that further amplified the campaign.
From an awareness perspective, WanderLove crushed the goals. Our budget for the campaign was $160k which was allocated across marketing channels to garner the following results:
Over 27 million impressions
360k website visits, (6x the original goal of 60k)
2.9 million video views, (almost 2x the original goal of 1.5 million)
310k Email opens, with a 14% open rate, our best to date
51k Influencer engagements, (10x the original goal of 5k)
According to our ROI study with Omnitrak, around 72% of exposed Virginia residents said the WanderLove campaign positively impacted their perceptions of Virginia as a travel destination. Furthermore, one third (32%) of the Virginia resident audience recalled seeing an ad and 35% reported planning to visit within the next 6 months.