#SheTravelsUtah
The year 2020 marked the 150th anniversary of the nation's first-ever female vote — cast in Utah. It was also the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
This suffrage history gave Utah an authentic entry point into a year-long focus on women-led storytelling, known as #SheTravelsUtah.
Role: Project Lead & Content Strategist
As a state agency tasked with improving quality of life in Utah through tourism marketing, the Utah Office of Tourism was motivated by momentum around the 19 trillion-dollar opportunity of women in travel. According to Forbes, 80 percent of all travel decisions are made by women. This marketing campaign spoke directly to these travelers.
The goals of this campaign were to:
Build the Utah brand as it relates to women and understanding of the cultural history; begin to shift negative perceptions about Utah being unfriendly to marginalized groups, especially women.
Encourage more women to travel to Utah by increasing consideration among adventurous female travelers.
The Mantra
The #SheTravelsUtah microsite was created to house all of the women-led storytelling. View the site at visitutah.com/she
The Microsite
A Mantra video for YouTube pre-roll
Women-led storytelling on visitutah.com/she microsite
Native article placements
Partnerships with Outside Online and TripAdvisor
#SheTravelsUtah hashtag campaign and influencer activations on @visitutah
The Approach
More than 71 million impressions and 252,000 page views on digital media placements.
$24.7 million in hotel revenue generated from people exposed to this campaign.
9 million impressions on social media, with more than one million total engagements. More than 200,000 total engagements with #SheTravelsUtah.
VisitUtah.com/she generated more than 119,000 hotel searches and an estimated $758,000 in hotel revenue, as well as 113,165 page views with more than 3 minutes average time on site. Female visitation up 150% on VisitUtah.com during campaign flight.
Baseline for perception analysis following partnership surveys with Outside Online and TripAdvisor.
Spending by ad exposed travelers led to an overall return on ad spend of $49.00 to every $1.00 spent.
Outside Online partnership tracked 72,000 page views, over-delivering projections by 189%. In partnership surveys, we also learning 2/3 of travelers have a positive opinion of Utah related to female travelers, and adventure was the largest motivator for solo travel in Utah.
Note: This campaign launched in February 2020, just as the travel and tourism landscape shifted with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Utah Office of Tourism shifted messaging and emphasis to encourage safe and responsible travel within this campaign, including a featured article by high-liner Chelsea Yamase about her decision to cancel her Utah travels (read the story). Health and safety for travelers and Utah residents was a top messaging priority as we distributed this campaign and defined what responsible travel looked like in unexpected ways.
The Results
Collaborators
Strategy: Rosie Serago (Utah Office of Tourism)
Microsite Design and Development: Hanson Dodge
Digital Media Distribution: Love Communications
Video: Rosie Serago and Sandra Salvas (Utah Office of Tourism); Cosmic Pictures
Social Media: Melissa Kinney (Utah Office of Tourism); Pandemic Labs; Sparkloft Media
Editorial and Content Strategy: Rosie Serago and Ellen Weist (Utah Office of Tourism)
Strategic Support: Molly O'Neill and Lee Banov (Struck); Dave Williams, Becky Kinney and Andrew Gillman (Utah Office of Tourism)
Photo Editor: Sandra Salvas
Banner Ad Creative: Struck