VisitLEX is an organization that has always prided itself on creative and innovative ideas, so it’s no surprise that a mural challenge has existed in the destination for many years. The challenge existed in a brochure format that people could use to guide themselves from mural to mural. As they progressed, they could e-mail pictures of themselves at the stops to the VisitLEX offices to receive a prize.
Digitizing the challenge with Bandwango just made sense.
The Lexington Mural Challenge launched on the Bandwango passport on April 21, 2022. The digital challenge remained the same as the brochure challenge and contained 48 murals. In order to win, a passholder has to check in at 6 different murals in the city to be eligible for the commemorative poster.
“I think people love the ease of the digital pass. We did several social media kicks over the summer to market the Mural Challenge and linked it directly to the pass sign up page,”said Arin Arnold-Davis, Project Manager at VisitLEX. “It was super easy for people to do (from home!) and they could go out and explore at their leisure.”
VisitLEX executed social campaigns and featured the trail prominently on Facebook, Instagram and Tik-Tok. This, paired with a feature article about the Mural Challenge published by LexToday all contributed to strong sign-ups post-launch.
In fact, by the end of July, the Mural Challenge was one of the top most visited pages on VisitLEX.com.
“Digitizing the pass has made participation go way up,” said Arnold-Davis. “Being able to link the pass sign up easily on social media, our website, [and other channels] has helped accelerate the growth of participation.”
Check out the metrics: As of August 25, 2022, the passport has tracked:
The Lexington Mural Challenge boasts high passholder engagement. In fact, the data that VisitLEX has captured shows that passholders are checking in at more murals than just those required to earn their prize.
One other benefit of the data captured from the Mural Challenge is that it has given VisitLEX ideas on how to create travel guides and routes that mirror passholder walking patterns.
VisitLEX has plans to continue the Lexington Mural Challenge and to improve on it next year with features like tiered prizing and prize shipment. Check out this blog about Bandwango prizes to learn more.
When asked about the goals for the Mural Challenge, Arnold-Davis said it was simple… VisitLEX just wanted more people to get out and look at the street art.
“We've gotten good responses from people who pick up their posters and love on social media from some of the muralists from around the world. We also saw some international participation which is always exciting,” Arnold-Davis said.