DMO partners with hotels for co-op campaign to combat seasonal low period

Overview

Visit Anaheim, the tourism board for the city of Anaheim, California, wanted to increase room nights and revenue for the city’s hotels, and increase awareness and ticket sales for Disneyland during the slower summer months. Through a two phase campaign featuring display advertising, TravelAds Sponsored Listings, email promotions, and a co-op campaign, they were able to highlight their city’s most captivating aspects, including Disneyland Resort, to secure an increase in visitors and revenue.

The Opportunity

Visit Anaheim’s mission is to “promote Anaheim and maintain its status as a leading destination for conventions, meetings, and vacations” and “inspire and delight the imagination of every visitor.” The tourism board wanted to address the slight decline in visitors they had seen during previous summer months. They knew that by showcasing the powerful appeal of Disneyland Resorts, they could help counteract the previous year’s summer dip in visitors. It was simply a matter of connecting with a highly qualified travel audience in an effective way.

The Solution

In collaboration with Expedia Group, Visit Anaheim ran a summer campaign for the purpose of increasing ticket sales to Disneyland Resort and increasing awareness of Disneyland and Anaheim as a whole. Using a number of digital marketing solutions, the campaign showcased summer activities and entertainment, with a special emphasis on Disneyland Resort.

Following the campaign’s launch, Visit Anaheim wanted to take the campaign a step further by inviting hotels to join in on the collaboration. As hotels joined, Visit Anaheim’s existing summer campaign was transformed into a dynamic co-op campaign designed to increase room nights for participating Anaheim hotels. The benefits of being a featured hotel included guaranteed first page exposure, higher page placement, and custom text, image, and deal tags.

The Results

The campaign drove a significant increase in Anaheim room night demand in June, July, and August. The first phase of the campaign drove more than a 7% year-over-year (YOY) increase in gross booking demand and more than 9% YOY increase in room night demand. A co-op campaign was the second phase and drove a 29% YOY increase in gross booking demand and a 29% YOY increase in room night demand.

The summer campaign also helped increase awareness of the city of Anaheim and Disneyland Resort. The first phase of the campaign saw over 5 million impressions, while the second phase saw over 4.5 million impressions.

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