How Bryce Canyon
Country Recovered

Overview

Garfield County, Utah is home to Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Capitol Reef National Park and much more. Relic’s partnership with Garfield County since 2013 has resulted in many successful campaigns. Relic’s Upgrade Your Dust campaign in September 2020 was one of these achievements. This campaign utilized digital platforms including PPC, social advertising, email marketing and retargeting.

At a time when everyone was stuck inside, Garfield County’s wide expanse of safe, outdoor activities provided the perfect getaway. “Upgrade Your Dust” was a nod to the iconic red dirt native to the area.

Results

The Upgrade Your Dust campaign provided new leads to target through email marketing. The ultimate goal was to increase the desire to travel to the destination. From September 2020 to February 2021, the campaign amassed incredible results.

Relic’s Upgrade Your Dust emails had an average open rate of 39.7% with a high of 52% in October. This is 94% higher than the travel industry average open rate of 20.4%. The emails also received an average click rate of 10.9% compared to the industry average of 2.2%. Facebook advertising resulted in an 11% average conversion rate, well above the industry average of 3%. This was also a 23% improvement over previous advertising efforts. Facebook leads also improved by 209.5% between January and February of 2021. Pinterest paid saves increased by 52.7% and the cost per save decreased by 69.9%. Retargeting click-through rates also increased by 16-18% over the course of the campaign.

Analysis

During the initial months of the COVID-19 shutdown, Relic was committed to helping clients. Relic created task forces to discuss how to help client destinations. “Upgrade Your Dust” was first conceptualized during one of those meetings. The idea was that during the pandemic normal activities were put on hold — collecting dust. This inspired the idea that Garfield County had better dust to offer. Upgrading from dull household dust to Garfield County’s robust red dust would be a welcome change.

Relic’s creative team did extensive research on how to convey this message. They created a range of products from images and banners to full videos. Relic’s PR and Content teams also did research to verify visitors would receive the message well.

During an all-time low in travel, the Upgrade Your Dust campaign was able to improve metrics across many platforms. Bryce Canyon Country sparked an increased interest in travel by encouraging a safe, outdoor getaway.