City of Valdez

VIDEO /
Image /
INTRODUCTION /

After a year of little to no tourism due to COVID-19, Valdez was ready to welcome travelers back in a big way for the 2021 travel season. The city hired Thompson & Co. to devise and launch a travel incentive program: the Discover Valdez Voucher. The Discover Valdez Voucher provided travelers with $50 to redeem at any participating business, and businesses were reimbursed for each $50 by the City of Valdez.

Tactics /

Microsite

Digital Marketing

Media Relations

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Campaign TItle
Discover Valdez Voucher: A win-win for travelers and businesses

The Challenge

With lingering hesitancy surrounding travel, select international travel restrictions still in place and businesses hurting from the impact of COVID-19, the City of Valdez wondered: What would entice travelers to visit Valdez and be beneficial for local businesses?

The Approach

T&C concluded a microsite, digital marketing and media relations were the best methods to promote the incentive. The messaging positioned Valdez as a safe destination due to its open, outdoor spaces while also promoting the voucher as an opportunity to make a dream Alaska vacation a more affordable reality.

6,000

Vouchers Claimed
The maximum number of 3,000 vouchers were claimed within the first two weeks of the program's launch. The Discover Valdez Vouchers were such a huge success that the City of Valdez re-opened the submission form and provided funding for an additional 3,000 travel vouchers.

$131,900

Redeemed
All 6,000 vouchers were claimed and over 2,600 vouchers were used, resulting in a total of $131,900 redeemed and reimbursed to local businesses.

98,000

Impressions Made
The Discover Valdez Voucher in-state ad campaigns reached over 40,000 social media users, garnered over 98K impressions and resulted in 3,078 link clicks to the voucher microsite.

Services Provided /

Microsite

T&C worked with Last Frontier Media to develop and launch a microsite. T&C provided all copy for the website using top keywords based on SEO research, managed microsite troubleshooting and handled voucher tracking. The microsite included a list of participating businesses and a submission form to claim a voucher. Consumers were sent a personalized voucher via email and a survey to share how they used their voucher and what they enjoyed most about Valdez.

Digital Marketing

After analyzing information consumption methods of Valdez’s in-state audience, an in-state ad campaign was created to build awareness of the travel incentive and to drive traffic directly to the microsite. For this campaign, T&C created paid Facebook and Instagram advertisements and a video to be incorporated into organic social media, YouTube and on websites.

Media Relations

Once the Discover Valdez Voucher program launched and the microsite was live, T&C drafted news releases and distributed the news releases statewide and to national travel media to announce the new travel incentive program.

Tactic #1

Microsite

T&C worked with Last Frontier Media to develop and launch a microsite. T&C provided all copy for the website using top keywords based on SEO research, managed microsite troubleshooting and handled voucher tracking. The microsite included a list of participating businesses and a submission form to claim a voucher. Consumers were sent a personalized voucher via email and a survey to share how they used their voucher and what they enjoyed most about Valdez.

Tactic #2

Digital Marketing

After analyzing information consumption methods of Valdez’s in-state audience, an in-state ad campaign was created to build awareness of the travel incentive and to drive traffic directly to the microsite. For this campaign, T&C created paid Facebook and Instagram advertisements and a video to be incorporated into organic social media, YouTube and on websites.

Tactic #3

Media Relations

Once the Discover Valdez Voucher program launched and the microsite was live, T&C drafted news releases and distributed the news releases statewide and to national travel media to announce the new travel incentive program.