What’s Montana’s biggest competition? Colorado, says a $150,000 Montana Report of Findings resulting from a custom destination brand research study for the state conducted by Destination Analysts.
Playing to its strategic strengths with target audiences in key markets, Montana Department of Commerce renewed with Wisconsin-based marketing firm Hoffman York. Following some controversy about the out-of-state agency choice (The Travel Vertical, 3/22/2017), that agency has now opened an office in Helena, MT.
The Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development‘s Facebook Canvas campaign, called the first-ever by a U.S. state tourism office, is cited as a Success Story by Facebook Business.
The Results
The two-week campaign successfully showed skiers why Big Sky Country is a great winter destination. Comparatively, the campaign achieved:
- 7.5x higher click-through rate
- 2.6x lower cost per click with Canvas compared to typical Facebook ads
- 19x higher click-through rate to VISITMT.COM from Canvas
“Canvas enabled us to tell a story as big and diverse as Montana in a captivating way. Facebook’s 360 video, tilt-to-pan creative and cinemagraph integration let us paint Montana’s story in a way other platforms couldn’t. Precise targeting and in-depth metrics helped us optimize to reach peak engagement,” said Raylee Honeycutt, consumer marketing manager, MOTBD.
What else is new:
- Chatbots for trip planning on social media
- Photography and videography by Montana residents
- TV ads during 2017 Olympic winter trials
See more here.
