Visit cheyenne
“Come for the Grit, Stay for the Glory” Campaign
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Situation
As Wyoming’s capital and home to Cheyenne Frontier Days, the largest outdoor rodeo in the US, Cheyenne is the closest thing the state has to a big city. With its population sitting under 60,000 and often being referred to as a “cow town,” Visit Cheyenne enlisted the support of Madden to change the perception of their destination from a small and isolated town to a city that should be at this top of every leisure travelers’ vacation bucket list.
As our partnership with Visit Cheyenne progressed, we started to realize that the city’s charm extended far beyond its history of cattle raising and the wild west. With the presence of an arts and entertainment scene complimenting its rich history, Cheyenne’s appeal was much greater than they’d long been given credit for. We developed the “Come for the Grit, Stay for the Glory” campaign to embody all of the destination’s brand pillars, increase brand awareness of Cheyenne as a leisure destination with a diversity of experience, and increase length of stay for those traveling through the destination on their way to neighboring cities.
Approach
We began by analyzing tourism and marketing data and identified strong growth in web traffic and visitations in 2019 and 2020 from certain DMAs. We integrated those insights into our target markets and indexed those markets by highest length of stay and overall visitor spend to prioritize certain geographic locations for priority media targeting.
While we crunched the numbers for media targeting, our creative team traveled to Cheyenne to conduct a photo and video shoot. These new assets refreshed Cheyenne’s asset library and gave our team relevant imagery to create ads that would resonate across different travel intents.
Our media plan also included DMA-specific tactics, creating intentional, in-person touch points with key audiences. The Dallas-Ft. Worth DMA presented one of the strongest opportunities for incremental growth with visitors who indexed the highest for length of stay and overall visitor spend. The “Come for the Grit, Stay for the Glory” activation in Dalla-Ft. Worth was executed during the highly-trafficked American Rodeo at the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, an event we identified as frequented by those interested in authentic western experiences.
Results
New Creative Assets
Our team built new creative that showcased the blending of two experiences: tight action shots of rodeo events and striking shots of the trendy downtown area. These images break preconceived notions of what is available in Cheyenne and shows that there is more to the city than meets the eye. These new advertisements were then deployed across an omnichannel media plan, targeting visitors in our priority target markets.
Consumer Activation
This Visit Cheyenne activation at the American Rodeo was in partnership with Cumulus radio and included a sponsorship for the Texas Independence Day concert at Billy Bob’s Texas. This sponsorship also included digital event signage, virtual remote broadcasts, and digital and radio spots. But this activation didn’t stop with a concert sponsorship.
Madden created multiple opportunities for event attendees (totalling over 4,000 people) to engage with the Visit Cheyenne brand. These touchpoints included:
– Multiple booth locations
– Visit Cheyenne sticker distribution generating live lead acquisition
– A live art creation exhibition by local artist, Bria Hammock
– Autograph sessions with professional Saddle Bronc Rider, Brody Cress
We also created a space for Visit Cheyenne to expand its relevance with regional and local media. This event introduced the DMO’s brand ambassadors to 14 journalists, influencers, and bloggers. The media contacts in attendance generated social media coverage after the event highlighting the authentic western experiences in Cheyenne.
DIGITAL ADVERTISING
Throughout the live event and once the activation was complete, our media team was hard at work using different tactics to promote our “Come for the Grit, Stay for the Glory” campaign. Our chosen digital media tactics included:
– Video distribution
– Social prospecting and remarketing
– Lead generation
– Precision geofencing around activation events and key area points of interest
– Epsilon display and video execution to show influenced in-market visitation
These media efforts helped layer the brand’s identity with a complementary message that emphasized the “western way of life” which fostered a closer connection between Visit Cheyenne and their target audience.
