Visit Abingdon’s Wolf Hunt Proves Small DMOs Can Get Big Results With Digital Passes

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Town of Abingdon, Virginia has 8,284 residents. It’s not a big town, but that doesn’t matter. The town’s tourism office, Visit Abingdon, Virginia, operates with a staff of just three. Yet in less than five months, they’ve turned a piece of local history into an interactive experience with impressive results. 

Abingdon’s Wolf History

According to local folklore, Daniel Boone was passing through the town and his dogs were attacked by wolves that were in a cave. The town was then called Wolf Hills. The area eventually became known as Abingdon, but wolves remained a part of its identity. 

An initiative was started by the town’s local Main Street Program more than 10 years ago to honor the area’s wolf history. Painted wolf sculptures were placed around town, and then auctioned off. The annual program was successful, but as Adam Bolt, Visit Abingdon Virginia’s Events and Marketing Coordinator shared, “We lost the Main Street program, and with that, we lost the wolves.” 

The local community hadn’t forgotten about the wolves, though. “It was still in people's hearts and minds, and we would always hear about them,” he said. “In this post-COVID world, there are things that went away that never came back. That's something that we try to do – bring back some of the things that we wish hadn't gone away. And this one was very easy. It was still fresh in people's minds.” People threw out the idea of bringing the wolves back, and as of this year, they came back bigger than ever. 

The Revamped Abingdon Wolf Project 

“We have a great partner, which is the William King Museum of Art., and they were the ones that brought the idea back for the wolves,” Bolt explained. The museum created a juried process for local artists to come up with ideas for the wolves, and 20 artists were chosen. “We have a lot of artists here,” he said. “Each wolf was juried and selected, so it’s a really big accolade for a local artist to be chosen to paint one of the wolves.” The program will conclude in November, and the wolves will be auctioned off to the highest bidders. The proceeds will help the nonprofit museum, and artists will be compensated as well. 

Arts and culture are an important part of the destination, and one of Visit Abingdon, Virginia’s core tourism pillars. The DMO created a partnership with the museum and used their Bandwango license to create a digital pass for the trail. They also handled the marketing for the pass. 

The William King Museum of Art Wolf Hunt was created to be a check-in challenge that sends people around Abingdon to digitally check in at each wolf statue, earning points for each one. The pass is an interactive experience that allows the passholder to learn about each wolf, and the artist that painted it. 

“I thought Bandwango would be a perfect match for this, and it was more than perfect,” shared Bolt. 

Building the Wolf Hunt Digital Pass

Bolt took the lead on building the pass using Bandwango’s Experience Builder. As a new employee, it was his first time using the technology, but he was able to accomplish it. “It was super easy once you learn it,” Bolt explained. “The support team was really great, too. I think that's one of the best benefits of working with Bandwango – you have support if you need it.”

There are several wolves in their downtown area, but the pups, painted by child artists, are located in the town’s parks. Bolt wanted to make sure people visited the parks as well, so he came up with a smart strategy to incentivize those stops. He explained his method and said, “I leveraged the point system so that the pups were weighted more. I just wanted to encourage people to explore more of  our town. Our footprint isn’t huge, but I wanted to make sure those were also being seen.” 

Once visitors accumulate enough points, they receive a prize: a wolf poster and an annual membership to the museum. Adjusting point values and assigning higher point values to certain stops as Bolt did is a great way to help encourage visitors to explore specific areas of a destination. However, he quickly learned there was so much interest in the pass that passholders were very willingly embarking on the entire trail. He said, “People were so connected to this project that they wanted to go to all of them.”

Since Abingdon traditionally gets a lot of older visitors, the DMO decided to create a printed map for people who weren’t familiar with using mobile technology. However, what happened next came as a shock. Bolt said he was actually surprised to see a lot of the older generation signing up for the digital pass and utilizing the technology. “It's been pretty fun seeing the older population use their phones and connect. I've enjoyed that.” The experience challenged one of the DMO’s assumptions about which visitors would embrace the technology. 

When it came time to launch the pass, Bolt enlisted the help of Bandwango’s team again and found them to be helpful. “There were some coding things that we needed done for our website, and they were able to just spit out the code very quickly. It just made it very easy,” Bolt shared. “I don't have a lot of experience with code or website design, but we were able to get that onto our website, and it looks very clean – and it was easy to do.” The pass officially launched in late May. It’s seen amazing results so far, and Bolt and his team don’t need to do a lot to maintain it. “Since we launched it, it's been pretty self-contained and easy to operate,” he said. 

How Adding a New Digital Pass Amplified the Wolf Hunt 

When the town’s Main Street program handled the initiative, it was a community-based experience that was popular with locals. Residents of Abingdon went around town to see the painted wolves, and they enjoyed it. There wasn’t a way to learn about the pieces or the artists, though. “The Main Street program, without Bandwango, was just for the community. There was no interaction or reason to get people to other places in town.” 

The residents of Abingdon still love it, but Bolt shared that the new pass has provided an interactive experience for those from out of town as well. “We've got the community. Everyone in town has done it, but we're also bringing people in and getting people walking the streets and looking at our stores on a larger level. It’s more of a tourism initiative now.” 

Results

It didn’t take long to start seeing the impact. 

“We're very happy with it. As soon as it launched, it took off immediately,” shared Bolt. “It was so much fun to watch.”

In less than five months, the Wolf Hunt generated:

• Signups: 785
• Check-ins: 4,966

The campaign has also been a social media win for them. The initial post about the Wolf Hunt had almost 38,000 views, compared with roughly 2,000-3,000 views on a typical post. That's more than a 1,000% increase over their usual performance. 

“It’s been exciting for us,” said Bolt as he smiled. “We feel kind of like rock stars, but we haven’t done anything. We just launched it, and the people have really just taken to it on their own.”

Four Tips from Visit Abingdon, Virginia

• Find a Good Partner

For this initiative, the museum was an ideal partner. It managed the juried art process and worked directly with the artists, while Visit Abingdon created and marketed the digital pass. 

• Adapt the Idea to Fit Your Destination 

Bolt said this idea could easily work without the auction. The sale of the wolves is a fundraiser for the museum and the artists receive compensation, too. From his perspective, this part isn’t necessary to attract visitors, and is geared more toward locals. The Wolf Hunt alone is enough of a draw. 

• Consider Using Video 

Since the launch of the Wolf Hunt, they’ve also launched another pass – Abingdon’s Revolutionary War Trail. Since Bandwango can now incorporate video into passes, the DMO created videos of experts talking about the locations on the pass. It’s been a big hit. 

• Create the Digital Experience 

Bolt expressed how important it is to have an engaging experience for visitors, and to go beyond just giving them something to look at. He left us with a final piece of advice to share, saying, “Nowadays, anything like this project or any art installation needs to have some type of digital element where you can learn more about it.” 

Conclusion

While the Wolf Hunt doesn’t conclude until next month, Bolt is thrilled with the success, and so are the town’s stakeholders. “I don't think we're going to be able to get away with not doing it every year because of the demand.” 

One big thing has changed since they originally signed up as a Bandwango partner, though. “We have unlimited build outs now,” he excitedly said. So, in addition to the new Abingdon Revolutionary War Trail, the destination hopes to build out other new passes as well. A Sip-n-Shop pass is on their short list, but the team at Visit Abingdon, Virginia is also looking for other ways to create win-win partnerships like they did with the William King Museum of Art. 

Visit Abingdon, Virginia has proven that a small DMO can make a big impact with the right idea, partnership, and digital tools. Want to chat about ideas for your own destination? Reach out to our team to book a free demo of Bandwango’s Experience Builder.