About: Visit Dallas is the official tourism agency for City of Dallas, Texas. The organization promotes over 35,000 hotel rooms and the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center Dallas with over 1 million sq ft of space.
Challenge: Create and launch a new brand, positioning and marketing campaign for Visit Dallas. Fill and support Dallas hotels during the upcoming 5-year remodel of the Dallas Convention Center to support lost room nights.
Solution: JNS Next, as part of the Vision Collab (an alliance of four independent agencies) conducted in-depth research and developed the platform that brought Dallas’s new brand to life. We conducted qualitative research with over 1,500 surveys, 31 one-on-one stakeholder interviews, 8 qualitative focus groups, 3 customer advisory board groups and 3 brand workshops. We also conducted quantitative research with 14 consumer focus groups in 7 national markets, 4 local focus groups, 3 customer advisory board groups and 1 national study. Then, we really got to work.
We successfully redefined what Dallas is: a maverick, can-do spirit, with the creative expression of just the right amount of swagger. We elevated Dallas as a bold, welcoming, must-visit destination to benefit our community and visitors.
JNS Next served as the advertising partner for Visit Dallas working under Greenhaus Agency, and we strategically launched the brand locally with a full-funnel media and advertising blitz. The campaign was seen across billboards, digital OOH, bus wraps, wallscapes/murals, print ads, digital ads, content stories, streaming audio, CTV and more, in both English and Spanish.
Nationally, we identified new key markets that Dallas had yet to reach, utilizing a market analysis tool (developed with SMARI and Michael Rudowski – VP of Research and Insights) to understand potential ROI.
The audience approach for the FY24 campaign shifted from an attitude-based model to a pillar-based one, emphasizing a more structured and brand-focused strategy. Instead of segmenting out specific personas based on demographics (families, LGBTQ+, diverse communities), our approach involved integrating these elements throughout the entire campaign, incorporating them into targeting, media placements, and creative components across all tactics. Our strategy involved reaching specific demographics within each audience segment, supported by data-driven research that delved into the characteristics of each segment.
We created 7 new audience segments and launched the new campaign in a three tier market strategy during a key need-period for Dallas. This included a market takeover of Chicago (a new advertising market for Dallas with high ROI potential in the leisure and group side) including billboards (during and on Chicago’s Pride Parade route – another key audience group for Dallas, LGBTQ+), print publications, digital OOH, streaming audio, CTV, high-impact ads, OTAs and programmatic storytelling solutions. Other key expansion markets included Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta and more. We focused these emerging markets on awareness tactics and messaging, as they had not been exposed to Dallas messaging in the past. Our in-state and other feeder markets that were more aware of Dallas offerings focused on lower-funnel conversion based tactics and messaging.
Meetings: We created a first-to-market meetings advertising solution with CVENT aimed at generating net-new self-contained meetings bookings and revenue for hotels, taking share from out-of-market competitors such as San Antonio, Nashville, Chicago, and more. We focused on generating business during identified need dates at our hotel partners.
At the same time, to launch our new meetings campaign, we took over the arrivals experience at San Antonio International Airport during CVENT Connect (the first time this event was taking place outside of Las Vegas). Attendees were shown Dallas creatives throughout their airport journey, and ahead of the convention, to get them in the right mind set for the show. We also debuted a new booth design, and carried the creative throughout the city on Digital OOH units for attendees outside of the convention center between high-traffic attendee areas.
Impacts:
We successfully launched the brand locally, generating buzz and awareness throughout the neighborhoods all across the city. During the national brand rollout months of June through September 2024, we generated over 194M impressions to key targets. Our Tripadvisor economic impact increased from $5.7M to $6.8M and a 50% lift in clicks to book and 100% lift in estimated bookings from ad exposure. Our Expedia campaign generated over $37M in gross bookings throughout the Fiscal Year.
Meetings: Generated net-new proposals for $94.7M in RFPs over the course of 3 months from 407 new RFPs and over 244,000 in potential room nights.
In 2023, 27 million visitors spent $6.6 billion in the City of Dallas, with a total impact of $10.5 billion to the city’s economy, supporting over 59,000 jobs. This was an increase of nearly 5%. Visit Dallas was directly responsible for over 2.4 million room nights and $2b in economic impact (more than 20% of all visitor spending)
LODGING $1.8 billion
FOOD/BEVERAGE $1.6 billion
RETAIL $1.3 billion
TRANSPORTATION (local and air) $900 million
RECREATION/ENTERTAINMENT $800 million
Metrics:
The Fiscal Year ended with 386 million impressions across Display, Traditional, Paid SOcial, Google, Video and Audio tactics; up from 243 million the previous year. (An increase of 58% YoY.)
Client Relationship Explanation:
JNS Next played a pivotal role in the Visit Dallas account as part of the Vision Collab, a collective of four agencies, during the initial 1.5 years of the contract. Following the successful brand development phase, JNS Next transitioned into a subcontractor role under Greenhaus, the agency of record, to support strategic media planning, buying, and execution for an additional 1.5 years.
In alignment with the contractual scope, JNS Next successfully fulfilled its responsibilities, delivering a comprehensive strategic media plan that laid the foundation for Greenhaus and its partners to execute future initiatives. After a successful brand launch and fiscal year, Greenhaus and its partners agreed to exit partnership agreements, allowing the roadmaps to work under a revised Greenhaus contract.
Client Contact: Jennifer Walker, CMO, jennifer.walker@visitdallas.com
Past Client Relationship: 3 years (2022-2024)