Turning Big Events Into Bigger Impact: What We Learned About Leveraging America 250, the World Cup & More

A Golden Opportunity — If You're Ready for It

As Brand USA President and CEO Fred Jackson has said, this is "a golden opportunity." With the average length of stay between World Cup matches estimated at six days, there's a real window for destinations to engage visitors well beyond the stadium. But attention alone doesn't create impact. The destinations that benefit most will be the ones that plan intentionally, engage visitors beyond the headline event, and build something that lasts after the crowds move on.

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In our recent webinar, Turning Big Events Into Bigger Impact, we heard directly from Destination Augusta (Georgia) and Shores and Islands Ohio about how they're already turning these milestone moments into measurable engagement — and what other destinations can learn from their approach.

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Tell Your Full Story, Not Just the Headline

One of the strongest themes from the session was the importance of going deeper than the obvious narrative. Destination Augusta's Ansley Guerrero, who has spent the past year and a half building the Augusta History Trail, made this point memorably: limiting America 250 to just the Revolutionary War "would be like defining your life from birth to age two." Instead, the Augusta History Trail tells the destination's full 250-year story — from early Indigenous history through African American contributions to modern culture.

Their approach was deliberate. The team consulted local historians, physically visited each stop to identify GPS coordinates, and designed every listing to tell a story rather than just mark a location. "It's a storytelling and wayfinding pass," Guerrero said. The team also developed supporting collateral — brochures for partner locations, America 250 stickers for each trail stop, and a limited-edition "Happy" button (a local collector's item created by a local artist) for passholders who engage with the trail.

The result has already generated earned media before the celebration has even officially launched. Local media has been monitoring Augusta's America 250 landing page closely, and partners have reported direct visitor interactions originating from the campaign.

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You Don't Have to Be a Host City

Augusta isn't a World Cup host city — but Atlanta is, and it's nearby. The team recognized that proximity to a host city creates its own opportunity to capture new audiences exploring the region. This is a key takeaway for any destination within driving distance of major event activity.

Shores and Islands Ohio took a similar approach, leveraging their region's deep history — including ties to the Revolutionary War-era Fire Lands and the Battle of Lake Erie — to build two county-level America 250 trails as part of their Shore Explorer App. As Visitor Experience Manager Brian Shifflet noted, "As an Ohio community, people don't necessarily think of a history going back to the 18th or early 19th century." The passes are designed to change that perception while dispersing visitors across a wide two-county area.

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Bring Partners to the Table Early (and Often)

Both teams emphasized that partner engagement was the real multiplier — and that it took sustained effort.

Augusta's team started reaching out to stakeholders a year and a half before launch. When partners had competing priorities and their own timelines, the DMO didn't wait — they built what they could internally (the Augusta History Trail) while continuing to bring partners along. Monthly check-ins with local historians, a dedicated America 250 newsletter sent to their full CRM, and a digital submission form for partner events all created low-friction ways for the community to participate. Guerrero also noted that even local businesses without an obvious historical tie-in can get involved — "even if it's a $2.50 milkshake," she said, everyone can take part in a themed celebration.

Shores and Islands Ohio has been similarly intentional about reducing the burden on partners. Tyler Miller-Cobb, their Visitor Experience Specialist, walked through how they've tested different engagement formats across their Shore Explorer App — GPS check-ins, quiz-based interactions, digital coupons — to find what works best for both visitors and businesses. "We always deal with the question of what amount of work is the business going to have to do to make this work for all of us," he said.

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Iterate Your Way to What Works

Shores and Islands has been building with Bandwango for three years now, starting with the Cheers Trail — which began as a paper trail before being digitized. That first pass evolved into a full ecosystem under the Shore Explorer App, which now includes rotating trails, the Shore Savings Plus program, and event-specific passes like their recent Restaurant Week pass.

That Restaurant Week pass, notably, was built in roughly a month — and turned into a real success. As Miller-Cobb put it:

"Just extra proof that you're not too late to do an America 250 trail."

Through ongoing testing, the team has found that quiz-based check-ins tend to drive stronger engagement, that referrals generate high-quality return users, and that limited-edition prizes (like their county-specific patches) give people an extra reason to complete a trail.

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Keep Visitors Engaged Beyond Day One

Visit Fairfax, Virginia (who couldn't join the live session due to their own America 250 board meeting) offered another smart model with their America 250 Pass: monthly prize drawings sourced from partner businesses. Each month features a different prize, keeping the pass relevant year-round and creating a consistent drumbeat of social media content and earned media. Partners donate the prizes in exchange for promotion — keeping costs low while maintaining visibility.

The webinar also highlighted creative approaches from other destinations. Downtown Colorado Springs built an International Food Tour Pass during the Paris Olympics to reinforce their identity as Olympic City USA and position their downtown as a culinary destination. Explore Edmonton generated more than 21,000 check-ins with a K-Days festival scavenger hunt — and is running it again this year as a result. And Milan used neighborhood-specific pin drops during the 2026 Winter Olympics to draw visitors out of the Olympic village and into cultural districts across the city.

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Measure What Actually Matters

Bandwango's Kate Skidmore closed the session with a point that resonated: "We do such a great job on our inspirational content — our websites, our social media, our marketing efforts. But it's really hard to know what people are actually doing once they're in market."

That's the gap these programs fill. Beyond signups, destinations are tracking where visitors come from, which locations see the most engagement, what days of the week drive activity, and which partners benefit most. It moves reporting past what Skidmore noted some in the industry are now calling "vanity metrics" — and toward actual, measurable visitor behavior that you can take to your board and your partners.

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The Opportunity Is Now

If there's one clear takeaway from this webinar, it's that the destinations seeing the greatest return are the ones that started early, brought partners along, and designed experiences that will outlast any single event. America 250 isn't a one-day celebration. The World Cup isn't a three-week window. These are catalysts for building engagement infrastructure that serves your destination for years to come.

And as every panelist demonstrated, you don't need a massive budget or a year-long runway to get started. You need a clear story, willing partners, and a way to package it all into something visitors can actually use.

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If your destination is looking for a way to organize, launch, and measure these kinds of experiences, Bandwango can help — whether you're building your first pass or expanding an ecosystem.