Approach

zag set out to introduce travellers east and west to the charming experiences waiting to greet them in the Flagstaff Region. Our team went to work on a campaign strategy that would appeal to the minimalist soul in viewers, urging them to get back to a simpler way of living and positioning the Flagstaff Region as the perfect locale to bring that dream to life.

The creative featured the inviting and captivating line “Take a Moment” painted across dreamy scenes captured around the beautiful settings of the Region. The custom photography and videography featured just a snippet of the lakes, golf courses, walking trails, and vintage barns found in Flagstaff. The result was a stunning and authentic campaign that spoke to a viewer’s innate desire to slow down and enjoy life.

Results

Awards

This creative was recognized nationally with four awards from the Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC), including their highest accolade, a Marketing Canada Award.

In addition, “Take a Moment” was recognized for its tourism excellence by Travel Alberta, winning the 2018 award of Marketing Excellence Campaign or Project in the $25,000 - $75,000 category.

Metrics

The campaign ran from April 30th to June 24th and saw an incredible amount of success in that time, both in digital measurement and in terms of tourism spend in the region.

The most impressive thing about this campaign is the stellar success it yielded. Thanks to Take a Moment, the client saw a 23% increase in revenue across Flagstaff County-owned campgrounds, and all regional golf courses reported an increase in bookings.

One specific regional activity we pushed was the Battle River Train Excursion, which experienced continued growth throughout the campaign. This success allowed the program to increase its offering, renovate its train station, and add two part-time staff. The group was also contacted by CBC: Our Edmonton for a feature.

Another specific activity that was highlighted in various platforms was the Heritage Barn Tours. Heritage Barns of Flagstaff Volume 1 book sales exceeded the goal of 60 by 148 sales, or 208 total sales.

The client receive a healthy amount of earned media thanks to the Take a Moment campaign, being contacted about their first ever interviews about Flagstaff, which were booked with both Global Edmonton and CBC Radio. Many phone calls and emails were received from interested parties about billboards and bus shelters.

On Google Search, this campaign had a healthy click-through rate of 14.46% on dynamic ads. Google Display ads were optimized to increase impressions and during its lifecycle, the campaign was able to achieve 489,288 impressions with click-through rates as high as nearly 1% on certain creative.

YouTube ads — which are typically skipped by users — achieved a nearly 52.44% completion rate, and incurred nearly 150,000 impressions.

On Facebook, the campaign was used in both an interest and remarketing capacity. Between these placements, the campaign was able to receive over 300,000 impressions, 29 reactions, 19 comments, 42 shares, and a growth of 35 page likes.

The campaign was successful at driving users to the Flagstaff website to learn more about tourism in the region. Google ads (Search, Display, YouTube) can be attributed to 50.91% of the website traffic for the period, and Facebook advertising was responsible for an additional 36% of traffic. Overall, the campaign period saw a staggering increase of 7,547 new users.

Testimonial

The client was elated with the standout copy and breathtaking imagery, offering the following testimonial:

"We received four marketing awards for our economic development initiatives, and zag was instrumental in them all; one award for our Investment Guide and Sell sheets (publication over four pages) and three awards (including the highest award of the evening) for our Tourism and Lifestyle campaign! We were up against some very big players across Canada and Flagstaff County took home the top awards. Pretty exciting!”