Franklin and the unique communities of Williamson County are located approximately 17 miles south of downtown Nashville in the heart of Middle Tennessee.
They are a scenic and cultural treasure of beautiful rolling countryside woven intricately with quaint small towns, metropolitan landscapes and a rich heritage of traditions.
Upon partnering with Advance Travel & Tourism, Visit Franklin saw a need to position themselves as their own destination with great southern culture, excellent food and outstanding music versus simply being considered a suburb of Nashville. The destination had historically seen success from print marketing and social media, but in April 2017 they knew they needed to dive deeper into the digital arena to be able to comprehensively track campaigns as well as incite travelers in other markets.
Visit Franklin partnered with Advance Travel & Tourism to ultimately build positive brand awareness and increase site visitors from 5 key locations: Birmingham, Louisville, Atlanta, Indianapolis and New York.
The Key Objectives
Increase:
• New users to the site
• Visitor guide downloads
• Newsletter sign ups
• Session duration
• Pages per sessions
Once travelers shift from the dreaming to planning and booking stages of the travel journey, they are increasingly turning to their phones and laptops. Visit Franklin must be easy to find for these potential travelers actively searching online.
The Solutions
• Digital Display
• Social Media Marketing
• Video Marketing
Digital Display
The digital awareness campaign started by sharing Visit Franklin’s messages with a specific niche audience:
• High household income
• Interested in travel, food and Americana music
• Double income couples with no kids
• Affluent and trendy families
To provide instant engagement for those who see the ad and want to browse recipes within the ad unit, responsive rich media ads were added to the campaign. These interactive ad units provide a unique ad experience that takes the traveler from the awareness to engagement phase of the buying cycle.
Social Media Marketing
Since social media channels are a platform where travelers share their experiences and show support for destinations they enjoy, the campaign utilized social to engage with travelers and build Visit Franklin’s referral base.
Advance Travel & Tourism managed Visit Franklin’s Facebook account with the goal to grow and engage their audience in Louisville, Birmingham and Atlanta at the lowest costs possible.
With regular postings of photos, videos and brand updates, Advance Travel & Tourism saw tremendous results including a relevancy score of 8 and less than $1 cost-per-lead.
Video Marketing
Advance Travel & Tourism’s Visit Franklin campaign relied heavily on video marketing, which focused on the core characteristics of the campaign: Americana is a story, Americana is a sound and Americana is a vibe.
These video ads were placed in related digital articles and on the YouTube platform as well as on Facebook’s news feed.
Results
Through constant monitoring, ongoing campaign optimization, and regular face-to-face meetings to discuss campaign performance and evolving short-term and long-term goals, Advance Travel & Tourism successfully guided Visit Franklin into the digital world.
Campaign Highlights:
• New Users: Up 64% YOY
• Pages per session: Up 17.2% vs previous period
• Newsletter sign up and VG requests: Up 37.6% YOY
• Session Duration: Up 16.3% vs previous period
“It’s been nothing but pure joy working alongside ATN to scale and iterate the digital programs of Visit Franklin. I tend to ask a lot of questions seeking to listen as much as possible to what the audience is inviting us to understand which isn’t always a priority of agencies looking to create billable hours. This is where ATN sets themselves apart and shines the brightest. They desire to listen too! It’s what has made our partnership truly authentic and the results continue to speak for themselves. I’m beyond thrilled with where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going together!”
“Working with the Visit Franklin team has been incredibly interesting. Together in our monthly reports, we uncover insight and actionable information about the digital campaign to take it to the next level of performance. We had aggressive objectives to meet for the client in the first year of partnering together, and we have successful met them over the past several months. My favorite part of working with Visit Franklin is the pure collaboration to create success. I feel as though we are an extension of their CVB, and not just a vendor.”
