NOMINATION FORM FOR COMPETITIVE TRAVEL MARKETING AWARDS Name of Nominee: Visit Cook County Key Contact: Linda Kratt Phone: Advertising time line : June 1st – September 30, 2015 Campaign Budget: Over $ 50,000 and Less Than $ 100,000

1. PLEASE SUBMIT A ONE-PARAGRAPH SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT, STATING WHAT YOU WANTED TO ACCOMPLISH, WHAT YOU DID TO ACCOMPLISH IT, AND HOW WELL YOU SUCCEEDED. Visit Cook County began 2015 with goals to increase overall marketing impressions, website views and lodging tax for the County all while having a summer marketing budget that was reduced 40% from In order to reach our ambitious goals, we created a comprehensive marketing campaign called Juxtaposition. The creative was designed to differentiate Cook County as a tourist destination by showcasing multiple Cook County attractions with clever usage of images, copy and placement strategies. As you will see from the following report, we successfully exceeded all of our goals and had the largest lodging tax increase in the history of our organization.

2. DESCRIBE YOUR PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES. The main goals for the spring/summer/fall marketing campaign were to: Powerfully introduce viewers to the new Visit Cook County logo Highlight the many unique attractions Cook County, Minnesota has to offer visitors Differentiate Cook County from other peer tourist destinations by designing ads that were visually clever Increase website traffic by 10% Increase social media traffic by 20% Increase visitor traffic to Cook County and increase lodging tax revenues by 2% All goals were exceeded. Website traffic, year over year increased by 28% Social media site traffic increased by +20% for VCC and all of our communities All Cook County business owners reported this was the busiest summer season they could remember. Lodging tax revenues increased by 8.5%. Grand Marais specifically saw a 13.2% increase.

3. DESCRIBE THE TARGET AUDIENCE AND PRIMARY MARKETS. Giant Voices, Inc. conducted a marketing research study for Cook County in early 2015 to help the VCC better understand the demographics of their key target markets. The research showed Visit Cook County’s top 5 target zip codes are: – St. Paul – Stillwater – Minneapolis – Minneapolis, Edina, Golden Valley, St. Louis Park – Minneapolis, Edina, St. Louis Park VCC has gained significant strength in the Minneapolis and Edina markets in the past few years. Primary decision makers are: Women 25 – 55, who are working professionals with children ages 5 – 16, who are planning family vacations.

4. DESCRIBE ANY SECONDARY MARKETS: While the research showed women 25 – 55 were the primary target group. Secondary markets targeted included: Young, adventurous couples ages 25 – 35 Older, adventurous couples ages 50 – 65 Fishermen: (men 25 – 60) Foodies (people 35 – 60) Romance (people 25 – 60) Arts followers (people 30 – 60)

5. DESCRIBE THE EFFORT’S CREATIVE BACKGROUND AND STRATEGY. Our marketing budget for the summer season was $85,000, which was significantly lower (42%) than it had been in Yet, we had set ambitious campaign impression, website traffic and lodging tax goals. To reach our goals, we needed to ensure the creative campaign worked as hard as possible and achieved more impressions than previous campaigns with larger budgets. Our creative strategy was called Juxtaposition. The concept was to juxtapose two different Cook County attributes into one advertisement. Through clever use of copy, design and placement, we were able to powerfully differentiate Cook County from peer tourism destinations and introduce the new Visit Cook County logo.

Juxtaposition print ad series

Juxtaposition print ad series (con’t…)

Juxtaposition Targeted ers

Juxtaposition Outdoor Digital Billboards

Juxtaposition Outdoor Digital Billboards (con’t…)

Juxtaposition Transit Wraps

Juxtaposition Transit Wraps (con’t…)

6. DESCRIBE THE TRACKING SYSTEM USED TO MEASURE RESULTS OF THE PROJECT. For this campaign, we tracked the following performance metrics: Campaign impressions (reported by the various media used) Social media site traffic (total new Facebook page likes were tracked) Website traffic (total page views, total visitors, unique visitors and bounce rates were tracked) Lodging tax (tracked by Cook County lodging properties)

7. DESCRIBE THE EFFECTIVENESS AND RESULTS OF THE PROJECT. (SPECIFICALLY, HOW MANY PEOPLE CAME TO YOUR COMMUNITY AS A RESULT OF YOUR PROMOTION?) Campaign impressions: Total impressions increased by 25%. Social media site traffic: The Visit Cook County Facebook page increased likes by 31.3%. Grand Marais page increased likes by 33.5%. Lutsen, Tofte, Schroeder page increased likes by 23.4%. The Gunflint Trail Facebook page increased likes by 44.5% Website traffic: Total page views increased by 12%. Total visitor traffic increased by 19%. Total unique visitors increased by 28%. Bounce rate reduced by 31%. Lodging tax: Total County was up 8.5% overall. Grand Marais was up 13.2%, Lutsen was up 7.5%, Gunflint Trail was up 5.4%.

8. DETAIL THE EXACT BUDGET FOR THE PROGRAM, AND HOW IT BREAKS OUT. FIGURES SHOULD TOTAL THE AMOUNT OF THE EXACT BUDGET. Visit Cook County Spring/Summer/Fall Budget Print:$13,000 Digital outdoor:$15,000 Transit$33,500 Radio$7,500 er campaigns$5,000 Video preroll$5,000 Television$1,000 Social media$5,000 Total Budget: $85,000

9. WHAT TRACKING METHODS DID YOU USE WITHIN THE PROGRAM AND WHAT WERE YOUR KEY RESULTS FOR THE EFFORT? For this campaign, we tracked the following performance metrics: Campaign impressions (reported by the various media used) Social media site traffic (total new Facebook page likes were tracked by analytics systems provided by the social media site) Website traffic (total page views, total visitors, unique visitors and bounce rates were tracked by Google Analytics) Lodging tax (tracked by Cook County lodging properties)