Fayetteville A&P Marketing Campaign

Client: Fayetteville A&P Commission

SITUATION

Over the past several years, there has been a continuing increase in students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, who hail from Missouri and north Texas. This, combined with the continuing emergence of digital media and online travel planning from consumers, has meant that there are a plethora of new opportunities to better target leisure travel consumers in these two markets.

GOALS

The primary goal of this campaign was to increase the number of leisure travelers to Fayetteville thus increasing tourism tax collections.

Expand videos used for pre-roll and television beyond the key visitor demographics of families, empty nesters and solo travelers.
Analyze previous digital marketing efforts for possible new ways to maximize budget and reach more viable potential visitors.
Make it super cool and awesome.

PLAN

The Sells Agency created video spots and digital display ads that appealed to specific categories of travelers (empty nesters, young adventure seekers, LGBTQ consumers, etc.). This content was deployed to several specific markets: Dallas/Fort Worth, Tulsa and Springfield, Mo. A specific landing page for these digital marketing efforts was developed in 2014 to help drive consumers further through the marketing funnel. More refined efforts in targeted marketing began in 2017 with new digital marketing technologies combined with creative messages speaking specifically to the key demographic groups.

RESULTS

In 2017, traffic to the landing page increased 269% year-over-year as a result of the targeted digital marketing and despite the digital media budget being essentially unchanged from the previous year. Additionally, in 2017, Fayetteville had the highest tourism tax collection increase of all Arkansas cities that collected at least $1 million in tourism taxes.