Attribution Data Shows the Colorado Springs Crafts & Drafts Passport is One of the DMO’s Top Campaigns Driving Visitation

Background

The idea of a beverage-focused passport in Colorado Springs started as a list of participating businesses that users could download and print, but Director of Marketing, Melissa Williams said, “It just wasn't very successful or measurable, so we were looking for a mechanism to be able to take it digital.” Since Visit Colorado Springs and Bandwango joined forces, the transition from paper to digital has happened and things have changed. The Colorado Springs Crafts & Drafts Passport was born, and the digital version has now been going strong for nearly a decade. It started as an initiative designed to have a strong appeal with locals, but has proven itself to be a strong driver of visitation to the area as well.

The Crafts & Drafts Passport 

“It's been really successful,” she said. “It's become a staple here within our community, and people who travel here frequently plan their trips around when the passport will be live so that they can participate.”

Director of Communications, Alexea Veneracion, added, “We have a surprising number of out-of-towners that will do it multiple years and come back to visit because of it. That's not anything we expect, because it is more of a local push, but people are coming back because of this pass, which is really cool.”

The Crafts & Drafts Passport includes enticing discounts at local breweries, wineries, and distilleries. Each check-in at a participating business is worth points that can be redeemed for cool prizes, including the coveted t-shirts. The DMO works hard to keep the pass fresh and exciting and reveals a fun new theme each May. Williams said, “I believe it's helping people plan their trips around the timing. We get a lot of drive market visitation from this pass, but we also get people from the East Coast, and we've gotten people from other countries who participate. It is making an impact.”

Measuring Success

Knowing the geographic location of those passholders was another perk that came along with moving their passport from paper to digital. The Visit Colorado Springs team has access to reporting data that shows insights about who is signing up for the pass, where they’re from, what local businesses they are patronizing, and more. 

Williams said, “It's offered a way for us to actually measure success, and to see what resonates and what doesn't.” She said it’s also helped them track the performance of each participating business. “When a particular location isn't getting the redemptions they want, we can see that and then encourage them to offer something a little more enticing.” With Bandwango’s Experience Builder, her team can easily make changes to the offers for each business at any time. 

Even with the sophisticated reports that are available, she said that some of their partners also track the success of the program in their own ways. “We had one partner in particular who did a profit-loss spreadsheet to track how many people it actually brought in and what the actual revenue was compared to the deal he offered – and it was really good,” said Williams. “He was really excited about how much money it made him.”

The Visit Colorado Springs team loves hearing these testimonies from their partners. She said they fully understand their role in helping their local businesses. “We do it for our craft beverage partners to get them added exposure and promotion, and to just get people in their doors. It's a really hard time for small local businesses.”

Advertising Attribution Data Shows It’s Bringing in Visitors 

Since this initiative serves a dual purpose in being a product for locals and visitors, the Visit Colorado Springs team does out-of-market advertising as well. They are strategic with their marketing and place an emphasis on making sure that what they’re doing is working. As a part of that effort, the team invests in reports that allow them to see the effectiveness of their ads. 

Veneracion was happy to share that the Crafts & Drafts campaign is one of the top marketing campaigns that is driving visitors to their destination. “We have attribution data now that we review from our ad campaigns to see who saw an advertisement and then ended up here – and the Crafts & Drafts one performed incredibly well,” she shared. “The return rate on actually getting people here from those ads was really high, and the data was impressive. That’s one of our top performing campaigns in terms of people actually ending up in the market from seeing the ads.” 

The advertising attribution data takes a look at all of their ads across multiple campaigns, but only tracks people that made a visit to their destination after seeing an ad. Williams added, “The data that we collect filters out anybody who lives here or commutes here. It shows that it brings in people from out of town.” The ads promoting the Crafts & Drafts Passport showed impressive results and proved that the pass was bringing people to Colorado Springs. 

Crafts & Drafts Ad Campaign Results: 

• Measurable Impressions: 1,681,487
• Observed Visits: 70,264
• Visit Rate: 4.18%
• Visits Per 1,000 Impressions: 41.8
• Average Exposure to Visit: 43.5

Other New Pass Ideas

Since Bandwango now offers the opportunity to build unlimited passes, the Visit Colorado Springs team has started finding other ways to use the technology to help with other projects. They launched their new Wellness Pass in January, and it has gotten off to a great start. Williams said, “We did a wellness expo launch event this year, and that was a huge hit. People loved it. Our wellness partners loved it, too, and now we can give a little bit more support to that market of our partners.”

Their team also has a new History and Heritage pass that will be launching in May in coordination with America 250 and Colorado 150. For that pass, they are trying out Bandwango’s new quiz feature. 

They also tried out a new attendee savings pass for attendees of their Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference when their destination hosted it last year. Veneracion said, “That was our trial, and now we're going to try to take that and apply it to more meetings and events that come in.” 

10 Tips for Success from Visit Colorado Springs 

With a 10-year-old pass that still continues to show growth and effectiveness, the Visit Colorado Springs team has learned some things over the years. The Crafts & Drafts Passport has become one of their most impactful marketing campaigns for their destination and they’ve shared some of their tips for others hoping to see success in their own areas. 

Be consistent

Veneracion says it is key to keep the same name and brand. “I think because we've stuck with it for 10 years, it’s become identifiable now. It took time, but now it's working.”

Refresh it every year

The Crafts & Drafts Passport is live from mid-May through the end of the year. “We really like having a fresh launch every single year,” said Veneracion. “There's novelty to it. We unveil the theme, we bring in local influencers and media that come and celebrate the kickoff event with us each year, and I think building that excitement and anticipation really helps it feel new each time.”

Create a new theme each year 

“It's about having really strong visuals,” said Williams. “Creative makes a huge difference.” Even when you’re keeping the brand of the pass the same, you can still change the theme of the pass each year to keep it fresh and exciting for passholders. “We work with a really talented graphic design agency who helps us create a different theme every year,” she said. “That creates a lot of intrigue and excitement around the pass each year. One year it was retro throwback and very 70s, flower power-themed. One year we did cryptids, so it was like Bigfoot and Mothman. Another year was summer camp-themed, and passholders could earn their stripes.” This year the team plans to do an 8-bit video game theme. 

Find creative outlets to promote your pass 

“We've done things like partnering with our local bike share program, PikeRide,” shared Veneracion. “We did an itinerary of five breweries you can visit on a bike tour, and then we made some social posts to go with it. That was pretty low-lift, but was another fun avenue to show people how they could enjoy the passport.”

Make sure every business has a good offer

Every participating business is required to include a discount on the Crafts & Drafts Passport, and Williams shared that her team sets parameters for that and only allows businesses to choose from five different offers. “We’ve had instances before when someone offered 5% off an appetizer when you get a drink – and no one's going to go out of their way to redeem that,” she said.  “We saw that in the data, so now you have to do a BOGO, or you have to do a free drink or a free appetizer with an order – something that actually provides a lot of value that would get someone to go out to your business instead of somewhere else.” 

Utilize different point values for lesser-known businesses 

Bandwango’s check-in challenges now allow you to assign different point values to different businesses, and Visit Colorado Springs started utilizing that opportunity last year. “That's been good,” said Williams. “We're able to use that to give more points to locations that are further away from the city hub. It incentivizes people to get out further to earn more things – and that has been a really cool addition. It’s enticed those businesses that are further out to participate, because they see that we have a strategy behind getting more people there. And it encourages people to try places they haven't been before,” Veneracion added, “It's a good support mechanism for our partners that are in the towns next to us, so that's been good. It’s increased the amount of redemptions at those places.”

Have a kickoff event for local media and influencers

Visit Colorado Springs hosts launch parties each year when they start their new pass. They invite the media and content creators to the event and have found that to be an easy way to garner earned media. Veneracion said, “We make it really easy for people to jump on board and share this for us. We put together a toolkit each time that has the graphics they can share, suggested messaging, and information on exactly how the pass works and how people can sign up. At the launch event, we get them to sign up for the pass and try it themselves, and they can chat with our team about any new deals that are on there. Then they go and post it on their own social accounts. We’ve also had TV reporters come out and do segments about it. I think that event and the hype surrounding it always helps make it a good kickoff.”

Keep it simple for partners 

“We do a lot of instructional, onboarding kits for participating businesses,” explained Williams. “It includes the dates that the program runs, what's needed from them, what it will look like when someone comes to redeem a pass, and how to show someone how to sign up for a pass. So really, we’re holding their hand in the process and keeping it simple.”

Take charge if you don’t get what you need from partners 

“We have learned to ask for their pass descriptions, and then if we don't hear from them, we write it for them, and send it to them to proof. If we still don't hear from them, we just put it on there with an option to edit it later,” explained Williams. “Just take charge and get the content on the pass. Don’t be reliant on other businesses to do it, because they are running a business, so they may not have time to do that.”

Stay in contact through text messaging 

The Visit Colorado Springs team uses Bandwango’s text messaging to stay in contact with passholders to keep them engaged with using the pass. “We make them cute and tie into timely things, like National Beer Lovers Day. It is always on September 7th every year, and that's always a good one to send that text message reminder out.” Williams said they also send messages to passholders to remind them to redeem their points for prizes. She says they see the benefits of the text messages, saying, “It definitely gives a boost.”

Conclusion

After 10 years, the Colorado Springs Crafts & Drafts Passport is still going strong. Williams said, “It’s just grown in popularity and anticipation. Every year it's a great program, and a lot of thanks goes to Bandwango.” 

Are you looking for a way to help push customers through the doors of your local businesses? Or trying to find a campaign that will prove itself to be a driver of visitation to your area? Book a free consultation with our team, and let’s chat!