Best Travel Integrated Ad Campaign

Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau’s main goal for the I AM ATL Campaign is to drive large and mid-size meetings to the city in order to generate economic impact. In Atlanta, the people are the city’s biggest advocates and will bend over backwards for meeting planners, attendees, exhibitors and visitors. They are very proud of their city and want everyone to have a great experience. But, if you’re a meeting planner, you may not even consider Atlanta due to misperceptions on things to do for attendees. So, we developed a new campaign and a detailed messaging strategy for the four key promotional pillars of Walkability, Accessibility, Dining and Collaboration, which highlight Atlanta’s strengths and challenge these misperceptions. Pillar extensions included nightlife and things to do. Actual industry personalities were selected to illustrate the key messaging pillars, welcoming meeting planners to experience the destination, people and customer service which make “ATL.” With an August tradeshow deadline looming, in 90 days we conceived, wrote, designed, cast and shot four ads for the campaign. We also designed, developed and launched the microsite, display ads, eMails, a 20’x20’ exhibit, graphics and screen savers for show kiosks and promo wraps for show dailies. Three more ads followed. Ads continue running in target print pubs and their online assets including eMail sponsorships and PPC. Digital impressions through January are over 23.8 million. Email open rates average 32%. Banners and PPC average 0.27% CTR. Print ad circulation is over 79.7 million to date. By November, traffic spiked 1,578 % over October to 10,308 visitors. December spiked once again to 28,351, or 175% over November. With 56,000 page views since launch, the small but mighty meeting planner market is taking notice via desktop and mobile. The buzz is even better. ACVB reports an 8% increase in leads in the 6 months after the campaign launch, compared to the 7 months before launch.

Contributors:

SVP & GM, Atlanta.net:	Andrew Wilson
Director, Content & Creative, ACVB:	Sheretha Bell
Manager, Group Markets, ACVB:	Lauren Dismuke
Director, eCommerce Marketing, ACVB:	Lily Leiva
CD/Art Director, USDM.net:	Brian Bjerkedvedt
CD/Copywriter, USDM.net:	Cam Jensen-Campbell
Art Director, USDM.net:	Adam Gunderson
VP, Digital Media, USDM.net:	Ross Ramon
Media Coordinator:	Amanda Orrell
Media Traffic Manager:	Erica Hernandez

USDM.NET

Location: USA