Destination Salem

Solution

We designed Destination Salem’s 2019 travel guide, which is on display in shops and restaurants in Salem, as well as the visitor center. To provide travelers with a new perspective, we made the cover of the Salem Trolley in front of the historic Custom House. The trolley is Salem’s signature sightseeing tour, and we made the cover vibrant to showcase the city’s colorful history.

Once the guide was completed, the next step was to attract online users to Salem. To attract new users, we created Google Ads, Display Ads, and Facebook Ads to promote Destination Salem’s Guide to Salem and the Haunted Happenings Guide, which focused on Halloween activities to do in the area. Before we hopped on board, the digital guide was free to click on and use while you had to request a hard copy sent to you. We realized this was a significant opportunity to build their email list by required a form submission to view the guide. After looking into the data, we found that the digital guide received significant engagement, so it was a no brainer!

Outcomes

In 2018, a year before we started working with them, Destination Salem received roughly 8,000 travel guide downloads. In 2019, with our paid search and social efforts, they received a little over 14,000 travel guide requests.

The campaign we ran for Haunted Happenings was from mid-September 2019 to October 2019. In this timeframe, Destination Salem received 178 hard copy guides requested and 284 digital downloads. We found that many visitors downloaded the guide as they were exploring the city.

Another goal of ads was to increase traffic to their website. In 2019, our ads brought 63,376 users across their two sites, salem.org and hauntedhappenings.org.

Overall, our work with Destination Salem has helped bring more attention to the City of Salem. From March 1, 2019 to November 30, 2019 traffic from New York increased by 20%, New Jersey increased by 22.6%, and traffic from Pennsylvania by 26.2%.