2016 Peak Season Marketing | Black Hills & Badlands - South Dakota

2016 Peak Season Marketing

Phone: 
(605) 355-3600

Spring is a hectic yet productive season here at BH&B. It's the time of year when 300,000 Exploring – Black Hills & Badlands Vacation Guides and one million Black Hills tear-away maps are produced and printed, and when the bulk of our 2016 marketing efforts are launched.

While more and more money gets moved towards marketing the region year round, we estimate roughly $253,000 of our planned $350,000 Out-of-Region Marketing budget is spent marketing the peak season. With so many buys planned, we expect to generate a reach of over 20.3 million in promoting travel to the beautiful Black Hills from Memorial Day and into September.

These marketing buys will range from 30-second TV spots to street team efforts at events in CO, MN, NE and Sioux Falls; from display ad buys in large circulating magazines to member co-ops running across digital ad networks in both expandable lightbox banners and pre-roll ad formats; and from paid social promos on Facebook and Instagram to direct mailers complete with unique scratch-and-sniff elements.

They’ll drop in our traditional drive-in market while stretching our regional border—some even leaving our country's borders and going international. Our creative focus this year highlights the 75th anniversary of Mount Rushmore, along with the centennial celebration of the National Park Service.

Speaking of the National Parks, we've jumped in on their "Find Your Park" campaign with our own giveaway: six national park passes—one pass in honor of each of our region's treasures. We are promoting the giveaway across all of our channels. To date, this contest has 2,555 more entries than last year’s giveaway of a Black Hills vacation—an increase in participation of over 461%!

Much of the efforts will drive traffic to blackhillsbadlands.com for more info—where the connections can start being made between BH&B member businesses and potential visitors. To highlight an example, one member business has already had over 8,300 potential visitors click from our site to theirs!

With early interest and travel to the region pacing ahead of 2015 this soon in the young calendar year, we’re excited to see the majority of our marketing dollars in play.

For more information on BH&B’s marketing plans or other efforts, please contact BH&B's Vice President of Marketing, Mike Gussiaas, by emailing mike@blackhillsbadlands.com or calling (605) 355-3600.