In the spring of 2009, Big was approached by our oldest client The Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau about trying to increase hotel bookings. It was a challenging time period for travel as the economy was still very speculative and people were watching budgets closely. To combat this emotional wariness, we knew we would have to do something unexpected and attention grabbing. We couldn’t just showcase the unique attractions and events the city had to offer, we had to speak to wallets and hearts of our markets. It was from this line of thinking that we decided to give travelers something they wanted and need – a Free Day.

Big worked with the CVB to gather all the local hoteliers together under one promotion: if you booked a room Friday and Saturday night at any major Birmingham hotel, you would get Sunday free. Many of the hotels didn’t stop there, they also offered a general buy 2 nights and get one free promotion. In addition, Big worked with attractions to get special rates for travelers taking advantage of the Free Day campaign. Some of Birmingham’s best attractions agreed to buy 1 get 1 free offers, further extending the FreeDay theme.

After getting all of the hotel partners and attractions to agree to the city-wide offer, Big was then tasked with the challenge of letting the region know Birmingham was giving away a Free Day. We chose markets within a 4 hour driving distance and ran a series of television ads flighted around peak travel times. Some of the ads generally promoted the Free Day offer, but most were also tagged with specific seasonal events.

In addition to TV, we ran an online media campaign consisting of ads on HGTV.com, GACTV.com, foodnetwork.com, and Tripadvisor.com. These ads demonstrated a higher than average industry click through rate, increasing not only brand awareness but direct traffic to the microsite.

In each ad we encouraged viewers to visit the campaign microsite freedayinbirmingham.com and order a free IN Birmingham Guide, a pocket-sized guide created in a previous campaign that highlights the best spots in town. When ordering the free IN guide, travelers were asked to select topics they were interested in regarding Birmingham. From these answers, we compiled packets with category specific brochures to be mailed along with the complimentary IN guide. A dynamic email marketing blitz accompanied the mailed piece and was sent monthly for the duration of the campaign.

These traditional media efforts were also backed by an aggressive public relations campaign. At the launch of Free Day, a media kit was sent out to all travel writers around the nation. Each reporter received a voucher good for a free flight to Birmingham as well as an ‘I Need a Free Day’ tshirt.

The second phase of our public relations effort consisted of a media tour of four target cities where the campaign was airing. Understanding what it takes to get editorial coverage, Big decided to bring a visual representation of the city with us. Vulcan, one of Birmingham’s famous landmarks, came along on the trip.

We hit 4 cities in two states over 4 days, appeared on 8 TV news programs and 2 radio stations, met with 4 major daily newspapers, and passed out 3,000 IN Books in high-traffic locations.

We also uploaded photos and video from our street team events and media appearances on the I Need a Free Day Facebook fan page, earning new fans in each of the markets we visited. Web traffic to our Free Day microsite spiked during the tour as well.

Social media clearly played a crucial role in spreading the word about Birmingham’s Free Day. Big created a facebook page and twitter presence to encourage travel to the city. Instead of just pushing the campaign directive, we tapped into the emotional needs of the network – calling the page ‘I Need a Free Day’. We then gave away free trips through contests geared around the community’s need for a break.

Travel quizzes, photos of Birmingham, contests and an approachable tone and manner helped the Free Day page get over 2,000 dedicated fans. Through Big’s efforts the CVB was able to personally interact with these thousands of individuals providing an invaluable branding touch point.

Success
We distributed over 10,000 IN guides throughout the course of the campaign and had over 22,000 page views to the Free Day Microsite. Hotels received direct bookings due to the Free Day promotion and Birmingham stayed above the industry average in room nights.