Positioning Corpus Christi as the Gulf Coast Capital

Visit Corpus Christi
Integrated Campaign
Business to Consumer

GOALS

As the world began to evolve at the onset of the pandemic, Corpus Christi saw an opportunity to evolve itself as well – to not be just another beach destination known only by Texans but to become a nationwide beach destination known as the Gulf Coast Capital. While the destination has some of the best windsurfing in the world, and is home to Tejano music legend Selena and the Texas-favorite burger chain Whataburger – as a brand, it didn’t have much character of its own. 

To position Corpus Christi as the Gulf Coast Capital, a year-round tourism destination with unique outdoor recreational experiences, we developed a full-funnel marketing plan focused on growing the brand beyond traditional regional reach, driving engagement and, ultimately, influencing measurable overnight visitation from core audience segments to the Corpus Christi area and extending their length of stay. 

By analyzing historical data and conducting research studies, we developed new audience personas and identified key fly and drive markets to reach these audiences, aligning the essential assets and values of Corpus Christi with their overlapping core values – connecting functional and emotional benefits for them to visit. The campaign used adaptive content that was customized toward custom target audience segments based on the travelers’ interests, demographics and stage of the purchase path to ensure the right messages were reaching the right people at the right time. We increased our spend and frequency in new markets to introduce the brand campaign, utilized high-impact placements to deliver a strong first touch and set the stage for sustaining media to drive seasonal visitation.

Now, Corpus Christi is experiencing all-time-high visitation and spending records that can be traced directly back to the marketing campaigns created in the last year, solidifying Corpus Christi as THE beach destination to visit along the Gulf, claiming their stake as the Gulf Coast Capital.

RESULTS

The “Gulf Coast Capital” advertising campaign ran programmatically across online travel agencies to tap into travel intent and booking data, mobile display, digital out-of-home, rich media, connected TV, streaming audio and print, and across social media including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest. The campaign also extended to Visit Corpus Christi’s owned efforts, used to launch a new look and feel for their website and marketing materials as well as to transform the Visitor Information Center.

In its first year, this campaign achieved impressive media performance, contributed to increased arrivals and longer in-market visitation, reinvigorated in-market spend, and successfully drove positive brand lift by introducing Corpus Christi to new audiences. Per Arrivalist, Corpus Christi’s FY22 campaign drove a 77% arrival lift and an increased average visitor stay of 2.3 nights. The click-through rate tripled industry benchmarks across all executions, and we tripled the organization’s email database through email sign-ups, guide requests, and attractions/deals pass downloads. Weather-triggered rich media had a 5.75% engagement rate – far above the industry benchmark, using Corpus Christi’s constant sunshine to appeal to consumers from other markets and their desire to get away to the beach. We also reached nearly 252 million impressions, exceeding our goal by more than 13 million.

A brand study conducted on advertising campaign effectiveness demonstrated a remarkable 12% increase in brand lift among exposed groups compared to control groups when asked what DMA comes to mind when thinking of the Gulf Coast Capital, indicating exposure to this campaign did reinforce this association for Corpus Christi. Nearly 90% of all respondents found Corpus Christi to be appealing based on the advertising, and users exposed to this advertising are 63.5% more likely to make a trip to the destination within the next year.

BUDGET

Media spend supporting all leisure campaign efforts during this time frame was $2.3 million. Cost per engagement was 40% more efficient than our goal (and earned us a whopping 6.8 million engagements) due to the diverse media mix, targeting and ongoing optimizations made during the campaign – making it the most efficient advertising campaign run to date for Visit Corpus Christi. 

The new advertising campaign contributed to driving economic impact as well, generating more than $11 million in bookings with a ROAS of 4:3 from our online travel agency and endemic partnerships tied directly to this advertising messaging. Most importantly, for every dollar invested in Visit Corpus Christi’s FY22 campaign, a record-breaking ROI of $13.13 has been generated in the destination that would not have been produced in the absence of our efforts as noted by Arrivalist.

In a pivotal year, we drove record-breaking ROI and recovery for the destination, creatively establishing Corpus Christi as the Gulf Coast Capital of Texas.

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