Pioneer Auto Show

Challenge

Pioneer Auto Show and RSA have had a long standing relationship when it comes to building marketing plans that set Pioneer Auto Show up for success during their peak tourism season. In 2021, RSA and Pioneer Auto Show set out on the common goal of increasing traffic to the museum after Covid-19 greatly reduced their visitors in the summer of 2020.

Analysis

The first step in our marketing analysis was determining the best avenues to reach as many people as possible with the different messages we had crafted for the 2021 campaign. Tourism in South Dakota is an interesting industry as all the main attractions are extremely busy in the summer months of May – August. Meaning, it is crucial to stand out amongst all of the other attractions both East and West River.

After we had determined our traffic venues and target audience we moved onto creating the messaging we thought would best capture the attention of the demographics we were targeting.

Messaging

Messaging for a tourist attraction can prove challenging when trying to determine how you can capture the attention of our various target demographics. In the case of Pioneer Auto Show, we have the demo of people who are history buffs and love diving into the nostalgia of the past and reminiscing on all the memories they have. We also focused on targeting families looking for a place where everyone in the family can enjoy their time learning about history or giving their kids a look into the past. Along with those demographics we also targeted individuals who are engulfed in anything that has a motor, as that is one of the prime attractions for Pioneer Auto Show. Determining how to reach those three different demographics in one marketing plan posed a slight challenge to our messaging.

Our plan was to diversify our messaging to those three different sectors of possible visitors and reach them through social media, Google Ads, and other channels.

Strategy

Once our demos were selected, targeting plans were set, and creative was produced, we moved forward with the campaign starting in late May. The campaign consisted of the following strategies to get the attention of our audience and entice them to visit the museum.

Google Ads

RSA created three separate google campaigns. The first was built around targeting travelers on I-90 between Rapid City and Sioux Falls. Users would see a graphic describing a specific historic item at Pioneer Auto Show and display how far away from the museum they were. As travelers got closer to Murdo the messaging would change depending on their location and would feature a new item between the designated locations.

Along with our geo-targeting campaign, RSA also created a second Google Display campaign that targeted people who had searched for Pioneer Auto Show and visited the website or had similar searches that matched our keywords. Our ads would then display a historical item with an eye catching graphic that would entice them to visit the website to gain more information.

Our third choice was a Google Search campaign that would match our keywords with various google searches and then advertise the link to their website at the top of their search. Example of terms and keywords we targeted were “tourist attractions in South Dakota”, “museums in South Dakota” and many others related to their business and what they do. These google campaigns yielded the following results.

• Impressions: 5,423,030
• Website Visits: 9,298

Facebook

In 2021, RSA wanted to focus on showing more visuals of the rarities throughout the grounds of Pioneer Auto Show. The best way to show this is through professionally produced photos and videos that tell a story and inform viewers on all the amazing things Pioneer has to offer. Once the videos and photos were created RSA used Pioneer Auto Shows large Facebook audience to deliver our message and reach some of our target audience. In addition, we introduced Facebook Ads into the campaign and saw amazing results. We were able to reach hundreds of thousands of people outside of their current following and introduce them to all of the extraordinary historical items they have on display. The Facebook campaign yielded the following results.

• Impressions: 842,892
• Website Visits: 1,337

Results

• Over 6 million impressions
• Over 10,000 website visits

In the end, the campaigns proved to be very successful catching the eyes of over 6 million people and adding over 10,000 new visitors to their website. Our clients, Pioneer Auto Show, were extremely happy with the campaign as they had a banner summer in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic put a large dent in their 2020 visitor numbers. We saw terrific growth in Pioneer’s Facebook following and overall Facebook engagement as well.