Last month, we had the honor of collaborating with Experience Olympia & Beyond by creating a mobile barista station experience in Portland.
Members of the local tourism board were on a mission to connect with women in Portland who like coffee, craft beer, wines and handmade products, while also promoting the launch of their self-guided South Sound Coffee Trail. In Thurston County, Washington, “handcrafted” is a way of life. Local makers create one-of-a-kind experiences for visitors, and the visitor bureau wanted to invite Portlanders to find inspiration in their destination’s wide array of offerings. Coffee culture is a part of what Olympia wants visitors to tap into while there.
Since Portland to Olympia is an easy day or weekend trip, we were excited to talk to those we met about the wonderful opportunities awaiting them in Thurston County! And what better way to say ‘hi’ to our new friends than by sharing with them a complimentary cup of coffee?!
We concepted a tourism experience to highlight the launch of the coffee trail with a memorable consumer engagement. Using client-supplied brand standards, our art team was able to turn sampling bikes…into coffee shops on wheels!
Working closely with the client, we identified key events and hot spots in Portland to target and devised a strategic routing schedule to maximize our weekend’s efforts.
Let the fun begin!
The mobile barista stations actually held inside individual 8-ounce bottles of cold brew, kept chilled all day long. To serve hot coffee, two of our team members were adorned with JetPacks – beverage dispensers worn on the back.
We didn’t just pass out coffee on the go, though. We took the time to talk to each person we met about all the ways Olympia is decidedly different. We also encouraged social mentions and drove traffic to a landing page where consumers could enter to win a prize getaway. A longer engagement time will improve experience recall and the likelihood that those we spoke with will book their trip to Olympia soon!
Over the course of the three days, eighteen hours of activation, our team was able to brew up:
- 4,200 estimated direct interactions
- 900 bottles of cold brew coffee distributed
- 600 hot cups of coffee served
- 6,000 estimated lasting impressions
What’s more, we also spent a small budget on mobile display advertising. This initiative reached another 204,209 mobile impressions. By targeting our exact audience of females 31+ in Portland who like handmade products, craft beer, wine and/or coffee while geofencing the key events in which our team was activating, we were able to to see an overall performance of 0.80% click-through-rate. This is 168% relative performance in the tourism category. In addition, we collected device IDs of those who were within close proximity to our experience team to retarget those devices with display ads, too.
Integrating out-of-home and experiential marketing campaigns with a digital plan can amplify your results and drive stronger performance.
Simplicity was at the root of this experience. But even with a low-cost investment, the quality interactions were highly effective in creating excitement for Experience Olympia & Beyond!
