See What All the Fuss is About

Entering organisation: Meet MinneapolisIn 2020, Minneapolis faced three crises: complete industry shutdown due to COVID-19, the murder of George Floyd and subsequent social unrest, and increases in crime alongside confusion around the future of public safety and the defund the police movement. In April 2020, Minneapolis had the lowest urban hotel occupancy in the nation with 3.4%. The subsequent tourism recovery has been a slow, reaching 46.8% occupancy in 2022 – a long way from the 68.2% 2019 benchmark.The core of Minneapolis’ leisure visitors are residents within 450 km of the city. As the nearest major metropolitan area, many of these potential visitors receive Minneapolis television and online news coverage. Increases in violent crime alongside extensive news stories and online social commentary combined with a lack of firsthand knowledge of what it was like to visit the city. As a result, Minneapolis became perceived as a dangerous, empty destination with no reason to visit– even after attractions reopened and violent crime dropped dramatically toward the end of 2022.As the team prepared for 2023, they knew that they needed to be more aggressive to combat the negative narrative and challenge people's assumptions of the city.Alongside other tactics, the organisation decided on an integrated marketing and communications campaign to encourage visitation to the city. They made a few key decisions. They would focus on their drive market - the core audience who was more likely to visit but who were also frequent consumers of Minneapolis news, but they would not ignore the challenges that the city had faced in the prior three years.For the local community, this was critically important. The team aimed to work to make things better while celebrating what they have as a destination. The decision to 'take back the microphone' led to the resulting creative, "See What All the Fuss is About". 'Fuss' is a throwback word that isn't common in everyday use. It also can have both a positive and negative connotation. Using coy copywriting and provocative statements alongside bright, vivid imagery, they grabbed attention and encouraged people to re-think their position on the city.Examples of creative included an image of empty beer glasses in a local brewery with the headline, "EMPTY. BUT NOT LIKE TWITTER SAYS". Another example showcased beautiful desserts alongside the line, "DESSERTED. BUT NOT LIKE YOU'VE HEARD." Because of its shock value, the team decided before campaign launch on both a limited time run and that they would subsequently change the campaign for the fall time period.This allowed greater latitude from any risk-adverse board stakeholders. They knew that it would take more than an ad campaign to see immediate changes in occupancy. In addition to common marketing metrics, they decided on three metrics that was evaluated post campaign via a custom study with agency partner MMGY:Perception: Did people think more positively about Minneapolis?Intent to visit: Are people more likely to come?Visit: Did they secure any room nights?"See What All The Fuss is About" launched on March 27th, 2023, and ran through June 11th, 2023. The team started with large scale press outreach the week before, with 30 custom "See What All the Fuss is About" direct mail drops featuring local Minneapolis small businesses and information about the campaign.They worked with 10 influencers to visit Minneapolis to share their perspectives on the city, including families, members of the BIPOC and LGBT communities, couples, and independent travellers.Paid media reached drive market audiences from 25-450 km outside of the city and included out-of-home billboards in target communities, digital ads, streaming radio, native advertising, pay-per-click, digital video and Facebook and Instagram advertising. Throughout the campaign, they optimised for the best performing ads on digital. Conversely, they overrode the algorithm and weighed video on social more heavily in the back-half of the campaign to ensure that high-funnel messaging was being seen.The largest challenge was one that was anticipated - sharp commentary from right-leaning media and extensive social commentary. The team had prepared stakeholders and staff for this and adopted a "do not engage" policy with trolls. Unfortunately, this commentary extended to personal attacks on staff members in select media and online, which was an unforeseen circumstance.The "See What All the Fuss" campaign achieved record-breaking marketing-driven media exposure, exceeding the previous summer campaign's coverage threefold. It garnered attention across 40+ regional, and national print, online, radio, and television platforms, amassing over 18 million earned media impressions.Regarding additional metrics from the MMGY study, after viewing the campaign creative, those who indicated they were very unlikely/unlikely to visit Minneapolis dropped from 27% to 22%. Furthermore, 70% of tone in the subsequent sentiment analysis was positive.Whilst the campaign positively influenced perceptions, it did not significantly impact the intent to visit, which remained relatively constant. Notably, 35% of disinterested potential travellers cited concerns about public safety as their primary reason for not visiting. Although a small portion of the campaign concentrated on conversion tactics, the team successfully generated nearly $20,000 in hotel booking revenue as measured by Adara. As they transition to their fall campaign, they're evolving the strategic creative approach. The updated logo and design emphasise "ALL" in "See What ALL the Fuss is About," highlighting the city's diverse offerings and encouraging people to explore all that Minneapolis has to offer.

See What All the Fuss is About

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