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Visit California Logo for Convince & Convert case study

Client

Visit California

Services Provided

Social media channel launch plan (TikTok: @visitcalifornia)

Situation

Visit California is a nonprofit organization self-tasked with developing and maintaining global marketing programs for 14 individual California markets to further develop tourism to and within California. It was eager to engage younger travel-ready audiences and wanted to explore TikTok’s potential to help advance their organizational goals and drive visitation to the Golden State. Visit California engaged Convince & Convert to evaluate the opportunity and provide a content strategy for the launch of a branded TikTok channel.

Challenges

Visit California was in need of a TikTok strategy that created a viable path for reaching an attentive and travel-ready customer base found in younger Millennial and Gen Z audiences, while at the same time appealing to Gen X and Boomers, who have increasingly found themselves on the platform. 

To do this, Convince & Convert created compelling content pillars that allowed Visit California to tap into seasonality trends while also providing enough flexibility to engage with emerging trends and changes in visitor behavior. These pillars helped to organize the content in a way that allowed Visit California to be strategic in content-sourcing — from b-roll in their existing library to working with user generated content through the Crowdriff Marketplace. 

This strategy allowed Visit California to provide content that was channel-specific and appropriate, while at the same time appealing to visitors who were highly motivated to travel to the state.

Solution

The Visit California TikTok page officially launched in 2021, going from 0 to 71 videos from September to December. Following a channel-specific strategy, it utilizes a mix of brand, user-generated, partner, influencer, and creator content. 

Visit California features content that showcases experiences in order to inspire travelers to dream big across 12 distinct in-state regions. In 2021, its videos generated more than 900,000 views, 2,400 hours of content watch-time, and 77,000 engagements. 

As of May 2022, the Visit California TikTok account has over 79,000 followers, over 569,000 likes, and one video that has garnered over 2.7 million views.

With strategic guidance from Convince & Convert, Visit California was able to effectively fill a branded travel content gap on TikTok and position itself as a category leader. It was also able to grow its customer base and extend the reach of their existing content.

Screenshots of viral videos and TikTok account of VCA
Visit California TikTok videos

 

Results

From December 2021 – January 2022

  • 800% increase in views
  • 590% increase in followers

In three months, September 2021 – January 2022

  • 92 post
  • 4.5M views
  • 13,000 hours (1.5 years worth of content views)
  • 470k engagements
  • 5.8% engagement rate
  • 10 “viral” videos

Content Marketing Awards - 2022 Winner Badge

TikTok was a daunting platform and we were unsure as to whether it would be a useful addition to our marketing Mix.  Convince and Convert helped us to cut through all of the noise and excitement around the platform to not only determine that there was opportunity there, but then to help determine our content mix, timing, and organization that helped get us running.
Gwynne Spann
Director of Content Marketing

 

Client
Texas Exes – Alumni Association for The University of Texas
Location
Austin, Texas USA
Services Provided
Situation
Like many alumni organizations across the country, Texas Exes saw declining engagement, challenges with hitting giving goals, and in general, had a harder time getting the attention from their target audiences. It was a good time to re-connect and re-assess alumni sentiment and needs.
Challenges
Although the Texas Exes had a strong organization and following, they still faced significant challenges:
  • Generally speaking, the University of Texas at Austin has a very decentralized culture, which pervades every related organization and department.
  • Texas Exes wanted to make sure that teams used to operating independently didn’t just see this research as something for the marketing team to use in crafting giving pitches, but data that could inform and guide every area, from student outreach, to events, to fundraising and beyond.
Solution
Convince and Convert started by implementing an attitudinal survey that asked alumni how they felt about the association generally, events and benefits, as well as their feelings about their time at the University of Texas at Austin. Convince & Convert then performed a thorough analysis, developed personas, recommended strategies, and content ideas that would support the needs and desires of the alumni. One of the key findings was that the alumni’s main unmet desire was more professional interaction, including networking, mentoring and job opportunities. When COVID hit, it became clear that they had a significant opportunity not to just move events online but do so in a strategic and intentional way. Texas Exes had been in conversation with Graduway, a platform that provides a private social network with robust features, for more than a year. In six weeks, Convince & Convert helped the Texas Exes accelerate this concept, finalize their contract, and plan a launch strategy. In addition, Convince & Convert helped organize conversations beyond just Texas Exes alumni needs to include Career Services, Athletics, and a number of colleges within the university to ensure they all had some ownership in how their corner of the platform would come together.
Results
Convince & Convert crafted plans for each of their service areas to evolve to better match the needs uncovered in the survey. Texas Exes was proud to have the most successful higher ed launch Graduway has ever experienced and are using the insights gathered from this active and engaged group to develop and refine future plans for the organization and the university. Reached 8,000+ users in four months after virtual networking space rollout.

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