When CMH brought us back in—five years after our first engagement—it was with what seemed like an impossible ask. Build a summer lodge business in adventure travel that had no existing comp, limited product understanding and virtually no consumer awareness, all with a tight budget during times of zero internal bandwidth. Oh, and do this during a period of heightened cross-border tensions and dramatic economic uncertainty. Like the job description from the infamous Shackleton expedition, we focused on the line about glory upon successful return. We accepted the challenge and they tossed us the keys.
The year one result was dramatically successful on all fronts, starting with a paid digital campaign built around stunning visuals and the higher level emotion of uplift in remote mountain wilderness. The impactful and emotional campaign engaged and connected, continuing successfully through four thematic arcs, a video component, three email series and an entire themed content campaign. Metric-wise, the campaign delivered more than 4M impressions with a .6 (carousel) to 3% (video) click through rate and also created stunning 600% increase in key event conversions YOY on their website. Bookings in year one, even with significant travel headwinds, increased 19.2%.
Operationally, our shop also guided implementation efforts with two external agencies, led cross-functional project management, developed digital creative testing strategies, integrated with inside sales and coordinated content development efforts with both the PR department and outside partners, steering the entire ship of the summer marketing effort. The biggest upside was not just huge spikes in engagement and conversions, but also that our work freed up significant bandwidth for their internal teams with a turnkey approach that helped turn the tide and start realizing the true potential of their offseason business.
