THE CHALLENGE
Located 15 minutes south of downtown Seattle, Seattle Southside includes the cities of SeaTac, Tukwila, and Des Moines in Washington state. It needed to attract new visitors after multiple years of disruption due to the pandemic which would require overcoming two challenges. The first was that Seattle Southside was still unknown as a destination. Many people would visit Seattle (the city), but they hadn’t heard of the region south of it. The second was that, due to the location of Seattle’s airport, many people would pass through the region but wouldn’t stick around. Without any iconic attractions, there wasn’t an obvious reason for someone to put the area on their bucket list.
Our job was to turn Seattle Southside from a place people passed through, to a destination they sought out.
THE INSIGHT AND STRATEGY
Turning Seattle Southside into a destination would mean giving it something to stand for, and we knew the existing positioning of ‘Seattle’s Backyard’ wasn’t working. It wasn’t that the notion was wrong—after all, Seattle Southside sits below the city. But it was too functional, relying on rational facts to entice visitors, including how it was conveniently located near famous Seattle attractions or how it had more affordable hotels.
We knew that speaking to the head wouldn’t be enough. We needed to speak to the heart. So we set off to find a more emotional reason to draw travelers in. After visiting the area and conducting interviews with locals, we learned that Seattle Southside was full of small, weird, and quirky things to see and do. There was the annual UFO festival, a museum dedicated to the magic of flight, even obscure art, such as the “Big Catch”, a sculpted bronze statue of a fish with human breasts. We also knew that coming out of the pandemic, people were hesitant to book big trips. Instead, they wanted to go on ‘microadventures’—shorter trips filled with exciting, quick hits of adventure.
Rather than convenience and affordability, it was Seattle Southside’s unique microadventures that would capture people’s imaginations and make it a worthy destination worth exploring.
THE CREATIVE IDEA
Seattle Southside is where curiously wonderful microadventures await.
THE EXECUTION
The new positioning led to a new brand identity, website and campaign that embraced the region’s weird, adventurous and playful side.
It started with the very core of their brand identity, the logo. We created a unique “S” logo made up of three parts to represent the 3 regions of Seattle Southside. Then, we had the logo transform and morph into all the illustrations that represented the different microadventures in the region. Whereas most tourism campaigns use overwrought “wanderlust” photography, we leaned into whimsical colours, funky fonts, and a tone of voice that represented the eclectic character of the area.
As part of the campaign, a video series about microadventures was released, and each video was “micro” in its own unique way. One was about a micro-toiletry kit, one was a guide to Seattle Southside in a few microseconds, and the last featured all of the microadventures set in a psychedelic animated world. Our campaign targeted regional markets in the US and Canada.
A revamped website utilized the new campaign assets and allowed travellers to plan their trips around all the microadventures suited to their interests, and could recommend adventures based on who they would be travelling with.
Most importantly, unlike other tourism brands, we never promised grand personal epiphanies. Rather, we celebrated our microadventures and stayed true to who we are, inviting visitors to bring their curious side to the curiously wonderful Seattle Southside.
THE RESULTS & IMPACT
Hotel revenue increased
Average Daily Rate up +12.3% during the first month of the campaign
Social media engagement increased
Social media across all accounts (Twitter, FB, IG, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube) grew by +518%
Total social engagements increased by +394%
Social Engagement Rate increased by +1,854%
People spent more time exploring microadventures on the website
Average website session time up +13.58%
We gave the cities in Seattle Southside a singular brand to rally behind and be proud of
Quote from Mark Everton, Seattle Southside President & CEO: “The work that our team has done has turned their organization around - from what used to be three city voices and various industry voices all having their own POV. Now they all have a brand they can rally behind and see how this can drive business growth.”
Media
Website:
www.seattlesouthside.com/
Market/Location
United States
British Columbia, Canada
Date of Launch
Start date: March 2023
End date: Still in Market