Pivoting to support the community

Client: Huntsville/Madison County CVB
Location: Huntsville, AL
Industry: Destination Marketing

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As the coronavirus began to impact the United States, disrupting the travel industry across North America and the world, the Huntsville/Madison County CVB saw a rapid decline in visitors actively planning travel. With the need to begin social distancing and a looming shutdown of non-essential businesses, the Huntsville/Madison County team realized a rapid pivot was necessary to continue to support the community through difficult times. 

Activating the Local Community
Huntsville, and surrounding Madison County, is a destination anchored by the US Space and Rocket Center. Popular among leisure and group visitors, and an excellent meetings and association event destination, Huntsville has seen a rich culture evolve as residents opened breweries, restaurants, and attractions that welcomed and relied on tourism as a sustaining source of economic impact.

With Coronavirus events rapidly limiting travel, the Huntsville/Madison County CVB marketing team needed to focus on sustaining the elements that make Madison County such a wonderful place to live and work. A shift in marketing strategy was essential, and time was of the essence.

Inspiring Local Pride
To quickly shift gears and support the Huntsville community during this critical time, Tempest needed to work quickly. Tempest's creative team turned to the existing campaign and rapidly prototyped new creative to be deployed across Huntsville's active digital marketing channels. Updated messaging shared a hopeful, positive message, inviting the local community to band together and support the makers and creators that weave together the fabric of the Madison County community.

Omni-Channel with Real-Time Optimization
As the Tempest creative team finalized new messaging, Tempest's digital media strategists adjusted audiences to activate locals and around the new campaign story. Using our in-house trade desk, Tempest's media strategists were able to identify new audience profiles modeled on behavioral data shared among local activists inspired by community-centric messaging. Paid search messaging and keyword bids were shifted to focus on capturing local residents in search of ways to support their neighbors during the evolving coronavirus event.

Measurable ROI
Moving to a local activation strategy provided an incredibly effective, impactful approach that is demonstrating clear audience engagement and value for the community. Audience-based targeting using Tempest's programmatic trade desk yielded click-through rates 10 times higher than campaign averages. Twenty-five percent of the visitors driven to the website resulted in an outbound link on a partner website. It is rewarding for the Huntsville/Madison County CVB team to support direct engagement with local businesses offering take out, online sales, or other community support.