The Boulders Resort & Golden Door Spa is located in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. In order to create brand awareness, drive traffic to the website and generate bookings for the slower summer months, the “Name the Cactus Contest” was created. The contest consisted of press efforts at the property and the local Convention & Visitors Bureau, an online advertising campaign, promotion on the property’s website, and an email blast campaign.
A landing page was created on TheBoulders.com to collect submitted entries with a back-end admin section for the property to review these submissions. In addition, a banner promoting the contest was placed on the homepage. Two emails were created and distributed using an opt-in email list from the Scottsdale CVB and the property’s own opt-in email address database. During the time that the promotion was active, traffic to the website was up 11% YOY and revenue was up 47% YOY.
The contest proved to be a success in driving traffic and interest in The Boulders Resort. The Boulders received more than 3,400 submissions and worldwide coverage. USA Today Online featured the contest in their travel section which resulted in nearly 3,000 additional visits to the “Name the Cactus” landing page. At the end of the contest, all winning entries were notified and an email blast announcing the winners was distributed.
