What's on tap in Madison, WI? Storytelling.
The destination’s Craft Beverage Trail first started taking shape when members of the local craft beverage community got together and brainstormed ways they could unite breweries, cideries and distilleries. This collaboration kicked into gear a project that was on the 2022 agenda for Destination Madison as well - the building of an experience that would help visitors enjoy Greater Madison in a new way.
In order to be included in the trail, locations had to fall under the criteria of brewery, cidery or distillery and had to be located within the Greater Madison Area. Each location also had to be an investing Destination Madison partner. After merchant outreach began, the Destination Madison crew realized the campaign had to be bigger than originally planned.
“Nearly every brewery, cidery and distillery that we reached out to chose to join the trail,” Ashley Pettay said. “Many locations were not yet Destination Madison partners, which gave our partnership team incredible opportunities to connect with new businesses and get them on board.”
With merchants investing in a new partnership and the idea growing in popularity, the Destination Madison team widened the scope of the campaign.
“The choice to do full photo and video shoots at each original trail location came about halfway through the creation process which caused the timeline to evolve, but paid off tenfold,” Peatty said.
“The team's desire to push each idea further has made Madison On Tap something very special.”
The thoughtful storytelling that Destination Madison weaved throughout the beverage trail’s campaign has been the secret sauce to its success. The brand of the Madison on Tap Craft Beverage Trail is fully-formed and illustrates that each local maker has an incredible story to share. That story contributes to the atmosphere of each location included on the trail and is uniquely expressive of Madison’s identity as well.
3,149 Sign-Ups
2,278 Check-Ins
41% Marketing Opt-In
In the first two-and-a-half months since launching Madison On Tap, Destination Madison has used a variety of paid and organic promotional tools including: paid social ads; organic social media; paid search; email marketing; local news media mentions; paid ads with the Pour Another Round podcast; organic media opportunities with Pour Another Round; digital blog content and printed collateral pieces including posters, coasters, postcards and rack cards.
Social media ads featuring the passport generated 17,713 link clicks, 1.3% click-through rate and $0.52 cost per click. The total impact of that? More than 1 million impressions! Additionally, Destination Madison’s launch email to their leisure audience saw a 48% open rate and 3.7% click rate.
Last but not least, printed collateral pieces prove that print’s not dead with the craft trail’s QR codes having been scanned more than 1,400 times!
The most surprising result of the campaign has been its success in out-of-state markets. Many out-of-state users have not only signed up for the passport, but have made redemptions at rates much higher than locals (in just two short months!).
“Bandwango technology made Madison On Tap possible. Until Destination Madison invested in the technology, the Madison craft beverage community had struggled to find an easy way to connect all the destinations and track the data in one spot,” Peatty said. “This investment was the missing logistical piece the community needed to make something great happen.”
Madison On Tap is scheduled to run through October 2023. Check out the passport for yourself on the Destination Madison website.