Travel Iowa’s Parks Passport Sets Up Destination for Future Success

Iowa's Parks Passport boosts marketing success

Bandwango’s first state tourism client, Travel Iowa, contracted the platform in March 2020 as a solution for celebrating the 100th anniversary of their state park system, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The Iowa State Park Passport showcases more than 60 state parks and incentivizes locals and visitors to get outdoors with friends and family.

Those who sign-up are encouraged to track their progress and are rewarded for visiting parks along the way. The first 800 passholders to visit 3 unique parks earn a free t-shirt while the first 100 passholders to visit 10 unique parks earn a free art print. Best of all, every unique check-in counts as an entry to their grand prize giveaway, a two-night cabin stay at Honey Creek Resort complete with waterpark passes, golf vouchers and more! This has been so successful they’re considering adding additional prize levels.

Bandwango’s back-end measures all sign-ups, check-ins and redemptions of the Iowa State Park Passport in real one-to-one data. Additionally, Bandwango is able to capture opt-in information for each sign-up, which Travel Iowa plans to use for future marketing initiatives.

Check out the CASE STUDY VIDEO HERE!

Initial Success

9,531

Sign Ups

5,927

Check-Ins

800

T-shirts Claimed

100

Art Prints Claimed

5,944

Marketing Opt-Ins

*Results are from June 8 – June 23

By using Bandwango back-end data, Iowa will be able to track true visitor data and create more targeted, defined campaigns. With opt-in growth, Travel Iowa will enhance their ability to build Custom and Lookalike audiences. Additionally, the potential to use passport leads to encourage future travel and bookings is the difference between measuring impressions and truly understanding return on ad spend. It also allows Travel Iowa to drive down CPMs and build more effective, inexpensive campaigns.

“In a very short period of time, Bandwango has completely elevated all that is possible for Travel Iowa and the level of value we deliver to our partners.”– Amy Zeigler, Travel Iowa

“With COVID-19 emerging just as our 100th anniversary of state parks programming was beginning, the Parks Passport has been a bright spot. It is incredible to be able to continue encouraging, incentivizing and celebrating state park visitation.”– Julie Tack, Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Inspired by the capabilities of the platform, the state also launched a Gift Card Marketplace initiative in order to provide support to businesses across the state. This campaign is just the beginning for Travel Iowa. Travel Iowa plans to continue creating statewide passes for a variety of tourism initiatives in the coming months.