At this point in time, most of us know how the world of influencer marketing works. With the rise of social media in the past two decades, came the rise of social media marketing. Influencers and brands often form a beneficial relationship that ultimately ends up with the consumer spending money on the product or lifestyle an influencer is promoting. We’ve all been influenced, sometimes for the better, sometimes not! Influencers are an integral part of how the social media industry functions and have the potential to make a product or service blowup overnight. That’s why Visit Mesa decided to create a partnership with influencer Lacy Cain from Wildjoy to market their “Adventure Pass”.
Visit Mesa partnered with local influencer, Lacy Cain and her brand “Wildjoy” to promote their brand new adventure pass. This isn’t just any normal influencer-brand deal either. It was important to Michelle Streeter, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Visit Mesa to find an influencer that aligned with their brand so that promotions felt natural. Streeter asked the question, “How can we use your brand, which was established, to help build our new brand which was this adventure explore passport?”
In order to do that, Lacy Cain signed a 2 year contract with Visit Mesa to continuously promote this passport. Why 2 years? That seems like a long time for a brand deal, at least from what you typically hear in the influencing community. This is a multilayered brand deal that will continue to grow and change as the passport does. The deal includes several TikTok’s, Instagram Reels, and Instagram photo posts as well as being promoted on Wildjoy’s blog and app. Through these promotions, Cain has the opportunity to showcase the simplicity of the pass and show potential users all the adventures Mesa has to offer.
Visit Mesa’s Adventure Passport includes 21 different adventures to take part in, 8 of which are curated and endorsed by Lacy Cain herself. Users can earn points for every adventure that they complete. Points add up along the way and can be redeemed for prizes, including an exclusive Wildjoy x Visit Mesa bag! Another layer that Visit Mesa decided to add to their marketing plan is having users share their adventures on social media, tagging @VisitMesa and using the hashtag #wildjoyxvisitmesa. Encouraging users to tag and share so that they can earn exclusive merch has helped to bring engagement and interactions to both Wildjoy and Visit Mesa’s social media accounts.
449 Passport sign ups in 10 weeks
Overall views: 620,877 views
Overall likes: 18,476 likes
Overall shares: 12,382 shares
Overall link clicks: 680 link clicks
Total impressions: 417,524
CTR of 2.19% (Facebook) and 0.65% (Instagram)
CPC of $0.29
National TV audience: 95,788 impressions
Total Online + Print audience: 420,828 impressions
Influencing has its advantages when marketing a Bandwango passport! Michelle Streeter says, “You can create these passports but you are going to get so much more lift, exposure, and engagement when you can align it with an influencer.” This partnership has shown what finding the right influencer to promote your pass can do. While Visit Mesa has used influencer marketing previously, this campaign has been much more successful. “This time it was much more layered and I would love to do it again, you just have to find the right influencer,” says Streeter.
A few key takeaways we have learned from this campaign:
Find the right influencer, not just any influencer that is willing to make a post or two about your passport
An extended contract with the influencer for continuous promotions is the best way to go about using influencer marketing
Linking the pass on EVERYTHING is a sure way to get more traffic to the website
Visit Mesa Adventure Explorer Passport is currently active.. Check out the passport for yourself on Visit Mesa's website and start adventuring the Wildjoy way!