Situation

Hosting Super Bowl LVII in 2023 presented a big opportunity for Arizona’s Visit Glendale to strengthen its position as a premier sports and entertainment destination. We worked with the destination to develop a multi-layered marketing strategy to introduce fans to the city “Where Champions Are Crowned.”

We knew that Glendale would be at 100% occupancy during the week’s festivities, and did not have the ability to influence incremental travel during this time. However, we wanted to take full advantage of  the spotlight on Glendale to raise overall awareness of the city as a preferred destination to experience sports and entertainment at the highest level, now and in the future.

Approach

We took an integrated approach to promoting the city. This started with creative customized for the big game, but still recognizable as Glendale. “Where Champions are Crowned” campaign creative ties the biggest game in football to the city that made it possible.

strategic media buys

Utilizing paid media enabled us to identify and promote to audiences that are likely to travel for the game, as well as visit on a leisure vacation. We utilized foundational tactics such as paid search, connected TV,  as well as prospecting and remarketing on Google and Meta.

In addition, we leveraged hyper-focused geotargeting and remarketing through MobileFuse. During the game, we targeted visitors to Glendale, as well as Phoenix, to maximize exposure and encourage them to dine and stay locally. Then, we retargeted those individuals for the following few months to encourage return leisure visitation. Paired with the Denver consumer and media activation events, we launched a Denver-focused campaign to deepen awareness in a top visitation market. In addition to promotion of the events, we launched a lead generation campaign via a giveaway to collect first party data for remarketing.

Paid media results

Paid media efforts blew awareness and top-funnel KPIs out of the water by exceeding all estimated goals by huge margins! While ad impressions exceeded all expectations and goals exceeded by more than 17X, clicks to VisitGlendale.com exceeded the goal by more than 800% and first-party lead goals were exceeded by 43%.

public relations

Through focused PR efforts, we helped craft the story that the media shared about Glendale to resonate long after the Super Bowl ended. By leveraging relationships with media, journalists, and influencers, we’re able to make sure the story of the game in Arizona is just the beginning of the Glendale story.

Our approach included an invitation-only media event held in tandem with a consumer activation in Denver. This gave us and representatives from Visit Glendale the opportunity to engage one-on-one with media, writers, sports, and news anchors from the Denver area, a key flight market for Glendale. 

Our comprehensive pre-game, during, and post-game public relations strategy also included long-lead pitching, newsletters to key media, FAM trips for media and influencers, week-of media support, and post-game follow up to writers across the country. 

Public relations results

To start meaningful relations with key media and introduce them to Glendale we sent out three newsletters to key media—two with a hook of the Super Bowl and a third looking at what is coming up in the destination. These newsletters were sent to around 150 writers each time and amassed an average open rate of 64%.

We also secured an appearance in our target travel market of Denver on the popular morning television broadcast Great Day Colorado.

consumer activation event

Our event at Tom’s Watch Bar in Downtown Denver introduced attendees to Glendale through in-person and digital efforts. We used the opportunity to promote  an Ultimate Glendale Getaway Sweepstakes to engage with consumers and pique their interest in the destination. Signups helped build our first-party data lists, which will be critical for marketing efforts in the future of data privacy.