Get Lost in Loudoun! – an innovative online campaign
Helping your destination visitors get lost can be a good thing, apparently!
I had an opportunity to work with one of our partners on an innovative campaign inviting visitors to do just that. The campaign, “Get Lost in Loudoun,” is aimed at getting a younger demographic to ditch their technology and the daily grind for a weekend trip to the countryside. Loudoun County Virginia is a suburb of Washington D.C. and is within a short drive of the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia, home to plenty of over-stressed young professionals. The goals of the campaign were to increase the brand awareness of Loudoun by offering opportunity and incentives to experience that brand message over and over.
The idea was simple enough; film the adventures of a group of ordinary people seeking to break out of their routines as they immerse themselves in the local experience of Loudoun VA and deliver it online. The execution, however, was a bit more complex and involved the integration of reality based video, a website, social media, e-mail marketing, internet advertising, and a promotional contest.
The Video Series
The centerpiece of the campaign is an online video series shot in a reality television style consisting of 9 episodes of the cast doing things like white water rafting, making wine, making pottery, and experiencing life on a farm. By releasing an episode a week it will extend the duration of the campaign and also provide a reason for their audience to return, increasing their exposure to the brand.
The cast was selected through a contest in which participants provided a video of themselves explaining why they would make a good cast member for the show.
Each week a new episode will be released and available for viewing online starting on September 27, 2011. A trailer can be viewed on their website at www.getlostinloudoun.com.
The Website
A website was created to host and promote the videos and to be a central hub for all of the activity that would take place around the campaign. The website was carefully designed to evoke a desired emotional response and a desire to “get lost” in the country for a weekend.
Get Lost in Loudoun! Website
In addition to promoting the video series, the website serves to promote the attractions and businesses featured in the videos by linking to their websites and providing suggested itineraries of other things to do in Loudoun. The site links directly to the primary tourism website for the area for trip planning ideas and tools. The site even includes an exact itinerary that the cast members used for anyone interested in duplicating their experiences.
The site also integrates all of the marketing and promotional channels including social media, online advertising, e-mail alerts, merchandise, and online contests.
Promotion
To promote the video series the client put together several contests that will be promoted on the website and through Facebook and Twitter. The grand prize winner will receive a “Get Lost in Loudoun” vacation consisting of 4 nights stay for 4, car rental, and several of the experiences featured in the video series.
As an incentive to explore the website contest registrants must find secret words within the website in order to enter the contest. You can use Twitter posts about what you have lost while on vacation to increase your odds of winning.
Banner ads were created to promote the series and will be placed on sites like Travelocity where people are actively planning vacations.
Success?
It’s too soon to tell how successful the campaign will be but one huge success was the cost. All of this was put together for nor more than the client typically spends for an online campaign, including the video.
As results on the effectiveness come in we will update this article with the details.
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