FAMILY-FRIENDLY MARKETING.
Insights & Analysis
The Orr Family Farm (OFF or Farm) is a spectacular agri-tainment experience in Oklahoma City providing families, groups and school children with fun and educational activities since 2004. The Farm’s mission is to provide visitors with memories that last a lifetime. Open for its spring season March through June and its award-winning fall season September through November, the Farm also hosts field trips, events and weddings each year.
In late 2018 with its mission of creating unique family opportunities in mind, the Orr Family Farm added a camping and glamping experience with overnight lodging in historic Conestoga wagons to its extensive list of activities.
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Eight of the 13 Conestoga wagons offer eight single bunks in each for a camping experience, created with large groups such as girl and boy scouts in mind. A more luxurious glamping experience is available in the remaining five wagon circle, three that sleep four and two that sleep six. All wagons include modern amenities such as temperature control, electricity, refrigerators and microwaves, access to clean restrooms and a hospitality room, showers and a swim spa, as well as central firepits and private charcoal grills. Additionally, overnight guests have access to attractions on the Farm such as fishing, paddle boating, the giant jumping pillows, farm fun yard and much more.
The Guild provided a full set of services to plan and execute a cohesive communications strategy including research, graphic design and collateral development, videography and photography, marketing and advertising strategy and social media and influencer strategy. Our challenge was to identify and attract a new audience and leverage current audiences to generate conversation, interest, and ultimately bookings in the new Conestoga wagons. Additionally, we wanted to honor the heritage of the wagons while also creating appealing, current messaging to attract young adults and families.
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Primary research for the brand came through several in-person and telephone interviews with the Farm’s owner and staff to learn their goals and desires as well as background information about the Conestoga wagons themselves to create media and marketing angles with their unique amenities and creation process. Based upon those interviews, the following objectives were set:
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Identify the target audiences for this business segment of the Farm, create and execute an integrated communications strategy, focusing on including current audiences and expanding to newly-defined audiences.
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Create a brand tagline, hashtag, strong visual identity and assets for the Conestoga wagon’s campaign that would be appealing to all ages.
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Introduce the Conestoga wagons to the marketplace and create awareness.
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Increase social conversations, engagement and following and partner with at least two relevant influencers.
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Earn broadcast coverage on at least two major television outlets in the OKC DMA
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Earn print coverage in The Daily Oklahoman as well as local and regional newspapers
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Enhance and leverage relationships with local and regional tourism marketing groups and community partners
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Secondary research for the brand included competitor and market research through the 2018 North American Camping Report in order to determine the Farm’s key competitive advantages to reach those interested in camping or glamping experiences
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Adults 25-65 and adults 25-65 with children or grandchildren ages 3-12 within a 100-mile radius of OFF
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Group or troop leaders and parents of scouts or other youth groups.
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Media and social media influencers
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Planning
Because overnight lodging is brand-new to the Farm and no other similar experience is available in Oklahoma, we had to develop a unique and all-encompassing strategy that could bring an experience with zero name recognition to local and nation-wide attention while blending seamlessly into an existing and well-loved brand.
Based upon our research, we created an integrated marketing and communications strategy that included identified audiences, budget, social media messaging and promotional ideas, paid advertising, media relations and marketing tactics as well as a promotional timeline that allowed the campaign to be complete in time for the ideal camping weather of spring 2019.
Overall, the budget for the campaign was $18,100. This included market research, all strategy development and execution services, graphic design, videography and photography shoots and production, media materials, up to 10 comped overnight stays for influencers and a 3-month paid advertising/marketing schedule.
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Execution
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Media relations: Pitches to appropriate media outlets locally, regionally and nationally. Host a media preview day and private media tours and finally, press release and asset distribution.
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Digital marketing: Including a comprehensive e-mail marketing campaign, YouTube and Facebook advertising and website retargeting.
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Digital positioning: Create listings on Booking.com, TripAdvisor, VisitOKC.com, TravelOK.com, Atlas Obscura, OKTourism.com and Glamping Hub
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Influencer marketing: Research and connect with relevant influencers to promote the OFF lodging via hosted stays. Develop an influencer strategy, expectations and deliverables.
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Social media marketing: Create organic social media content as well as a robust scavenger hunt encompassing 15 unique locations frequented by families. Hidden were free overnight stay vouchers attached to mini Conestoga wagons. Hints were given on social media for each location and winners were required to submit their information as well as post a photo with the campaign hashtag, #HipstoricOvernights. The user-generated content was re-shared to the Farm’s followers on Facebook and Instagram to create excitement and awareness.
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Community partnerships: Host the OKC Convention & Visitors Bureau and other regional tourism entities and community partners with a preview event.
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Marketing collateral: Including a brochure, digital, social and media assets.
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Captivating photo and video content: To support the content plan and advertising strategy, we organized a two-day promotional shoot including researching and hiring eight different actors, developing a storyboard, developing a shot list for both photos and videos and directing and executing the shoot.
Evaluation
Overall, the launch campaign was a huge success. All of the campaign objectives were met and far exceeded regarding reservations and revenue. Customer testimonials have all been 100% positive regarding their experience, amenities and hospitality provided by the Farm.
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Reservations: 283 reservations attributed to the 3-month launch campaign, equaling more than $56,600 in revenue.
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Paid advertising: Through Google display ads, YouTube and Facebook, we were able to capture 1,077,819 impressions leading to 63,583 clicks to the Farm’s website. Overall click through rate was 5.9%, nearly three times the industry average.
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Social and e-mail marketing: For the three month campaign, Facebook followers grew 1.97% and Instagram 16.25%. The scavenger hunt had a combined reach of 124,182 and more than 15,600 engagements combined as well as 938 interactions. The email campaign had an average of a 10.5% open rate and 8% click through rate.
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Influencer marketing: The Farm hosted four social media influencers with a combined reach of 1,035,000. For a nominal cost of four overnight stays, they saw two bookings on return in the 3-month campaign timeframe.
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Media relations: The wagons were featured in 16 media placements including television, blogs, national publications such as USA Today and print publications. Media preview day focused on local and regional media, and attendance from all four major television outlets was achieved.
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Testimonials: 40 positive reviews from customers posted on Google, Facebook, Booking.com and TripAdvisor.
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TARGETED DIGITAL PLACES BULLSEYE ON DEER HITS.
Insights & Analysis
Collision Works is a regional vehicle collision repair company with more than 30 locations in Oklahoma and Kansas. The company wanted to target potential consumers who had unfortunate accidents involving deer during the fall and early winter season (September - January).
Deer-hits are a major source of vehicle damage during the fall and winter months. According to sources, 16.4% of all wrecks in Oklahoma are deer-related and more than 13.7% of accidents in Kansas involve a deer or large stray animal.
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Planning
Because of this substantial potential audience pertaining to vehicle collisions with animals, our team formulated a strategy to target specific populations within rural communities. The universal audience included several indicators, but most importantly, the campaign was focused on those who lived, worked, shopped and recreated within rural areas of Oklahoma and Kansas.
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Overall, the budget for the campaign was $14,000. This included market research, all strategy development and execution services, graphic design and digital placement with reporting.
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Execution
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Digital marketing: Including geofencing, demographic targeting display advertising, re-targeting and Facebook.
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Social media marketing: Created organic social media content complimentary to the paid digital marketing.
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Marketing collateral: Including a point of sale poster and flyer for each location, postcards to be placed in customer vehicles digital and digital assets.
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Evaluation
The "Hit a Deer" campaign had been executed three years prior to 2019-2020. Previous years saw less than 25% of the recorded consumers versus those of the 2012-2020 targeted digital campaign.
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Over the four-month period, more than a million impressions were made across all channels. This led to more than 149,326 clicks and an overall click through rate of 4.6%.
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Stores were responsible for tracking the promotion codes and recording them in the Collision Works' database. To date, the four-month, $14,000 campaign grossed $1.3 million in sales.
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*Collision Works is now known as Gerber Collision.
MARKETING FOR THE CROWN.
Insights & Analysis
The franchise owner of the majority of Burger King restaurants in Oklahoma wanted to consolidate marketing operations as well as test unique opportunities outside of the national marketing and advertising plans. With more than 35 locations throughout the state, an overall marketing strategy was needed, but each location had its own unique requirements.
Planning
The first step in determining potential marketing opportunities was to completely understand the integration of the Oklahoma locations with the national franchise. Once that relationship was established, we then needed to understand the local audience who were current and potential consumers of Burger King products as well as their preferences for day-part offerings such as breakfast versus lunch versus dinner and/or snacks.
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Finally, our team generated a comprehensive plan to research the potential customers, track their patterns, begin offering targeted messaging and support the expansion of the Switchgrass Holdings network of locations expanding from its core in Tulsa to a statewide operation.
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Execution
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Website Design: Designed and developed a new Switchgrass Management/Burger King website enabling tracking of digital marketing campaigns.
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Marketing Research: Research of more than 10,000 customers at six locations within the Switchgrass Management/Burger King system to determine key indicators.
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Strategic Marketing Plan: Our team created a comprehensive and expandable marketing plan to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to specific stores and alert the public of new openings in their area.
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Graphic Design: Created various materials including online ads, billboard advertisements and print advertisements.
Evaluation
The network continues to expand, old stores are being updated and the target audiences are being reached without wasted advertising.
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Tracking of patrons and understanding of consumer patterns.
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Increased awareness of new and remodeled locations.
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Increased understanding of day-part dining and effective ways to reach those consumers.
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Higher levels of integration with national franchiser to leverage national spends more effectively on the local level.
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A BOOTLEGGER'S TASTE FOR DESIGN.
Insights & Analysis
Brand new to the distillery business, Red Fork Distillery began operations in the spring of 2018. The company started with a line of spirits including vodka and two moonshines, a standard and cinnamon-flavored alcohol. The company needed a brand and a flavor past that developed in the distillery.
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As Tulsa's first legal distillery since prohibition, the company had a logo and engaged an artist about using his original artwork, other than that, the brand needed to be crafted and story told.
Planning
Our team immediately researched the historical uniqueness of the distillery business in Oklahoma, but also the rich heritage of the Red Fork district of Tulsa. There was an inherent connection between this industry, the deep roots of those who lived and worked in Red Fork, and the fact the distillery sat literally at the backdoor of America's most famous thoroughfare, historic Route 66.
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Overall, the logo needed to be matched with the artwork. The brand needed to be expanded and stories needed to be written to explain the importance of the packaging and the craft spirits in the bottles.
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Execution
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Branding: Designed the overall look of the Red Fork Distillery brand, labels and marketing materials including sales sheets, corporate materials, recipe cards and other collateral needed.
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Website Design: Designed and developed the Red Fork Distillery website including the inclusion of online booking for tours, the creation of a sub-brand known as "The Still" event center and an e-commerce portal for merchandise sales.
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Captivating photography and videography: Numerous photo and video shoots to continuously market the product and brand.
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Social media marketing: Create organic social media content as well as a robust offering through graphics and video.
Evaluation
The brand continues to grow and has gone from distribution in one liquor store in Tulsa to more than 50 stores and restaurants in Oklahoma. The following objective results continue to show growth:
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Increase of products on stores shelves and utilized restaurant locations throughout Oklahoma.
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Increase of visitors to website by 35% quarter-after-quarter for a year.
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Social media followers have increased by more than 10% quarter-after-quarter for a year.
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The company has released a whiskey and multiple other products and continues to book tours and events.
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THE WORLD'S BEST NEED MORE THAN EIGHT SECONDS.
Insights & Analysis
Since 1993, Shawnee, Oklahoma, has been the host of the world's richest youth rodeo. The International Finals Youth Rodeo (IFYR) showcases the best-of-the-best high school rodeo athletes from across the globe. More than 800 competitors from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand enter the IFYR to compete at the highest level.
Until 2013, the rodeo relied upon local tourism outlets for publicity. Unequipped to provide the national reach for this event, the IFYR soon hired our agency to provide full-service marketing and public relations services prior to, and during the event. The efforts have shifted from months prior to the event to a year-long effort to showcase past champions, upcoming dates important to rodeo athletes and more.
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Planning
Each year, we continue a constant conversation with members of the IFYR Board of Directors and staff to understand any updates or changes in the rodeo. We create a comprehensive communications plan to reach potential athletes, their families, event attendees and potential consumers interested in the Tin Star Market tradeshow.
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Execution
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Branding: Throughout the year, our team designs advertisements, creates and manages marketing collateral and sponsorship materials and assists in designing and content writing for the event program.
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Social Media Management: Social media for the event is active 365 days a year. The demographic of the participants dictates high-levels of engagement online via several social media channels and the event's website.
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Media Relations: Prior to the event, our team sends releases and coordinates interviews for contestants in their hometowns as well as event-based releases and pitches alerting the public to registration and event dates, the Tin Star Market shopping opportunity and important information.
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On-site Media Relations: During the week-long event, three members of our team stay in Shawnee and facilitate media interviews, radio interviews and immediate notices via e-newsletters, social media posts and website updates at the Media Center. We distribute updates to the media at least twice daily and fulfill numerous information and photo requests from outlets from across the globe.
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Evaluation
For five years, our team successfully increased the visibility of the IFYR:
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Daily written or photojournalist stories in newspapers and print publications as well as interviews with television channels.
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Increased social media engagement by 20% each year (year over year) since 2014.
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Annually, an average of 250 stories written by local, national and international press facilitated by our team
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EARNED MEDIA FOR WORLD CLASS PERFORMERS.
Insights & Analysis
Cirque du Soleil regularly travels across North America with unique and entertaining shows. Offering a variety of show styles, the world-renowned organization has brought two ice-based shows, Crystal and AXEL, to Oklahoma.
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As the local agency partner, we engage each show's national publicist to gain earned media in each market.
Truly pure media and influencer relations, all advertising and one-going marketing is directed from the Montreal, Quebec, headquarters. Our job is to increase awareness of the upcoming shows through pitching to traditional media outlets and online influencers.
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Planning
Prior to performances, there is approximately six to seven months of engagement with the show publicist. We work together in getting up to speed about the show, the plot, the intricacies which make it unique, show dates and finally calendars for appearances in market with reporters. Our team begins to craft local messaging, look for partnership opportunities and scouts similar shows during that time to ensure the message of Cirque du Soleil isn't lost.
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Execution
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Media and Influencer Relations: Our team pitches to traditional media outlets and online influencers in an effort to secure interviews and earned content.
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Behind-the-scenes Event: The day of the first performance, we invite media outlets and influencers to get a sneak peek of the actual show before the evening performance, and serves as a unique photo, video and interview opportunity.
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Following-up: After interviews are conducted, media often have follow-up questions. We provide additional information and assets to ensure all stories are comprehensive and well-rounded from the client's point of view.
Evaluation
We proudly served as the local agency of record for Cirque du Soleil for three years. We secured the following:
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Interviews with all major television and print outlets in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa (locations of performances).
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Interviews with numerous social media influencers who engage entertainment audiences.
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Increased sales of tickets on the days of interviews and subsequent performances based on interviews conducted.
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