CORSICANA, TX – April 5, 2022 -- An innovative advertising program created to encourage the recovery of travel to and within Texas will launch this month, and will include the tourism destination of Corsicana. Developed by Travel Texas, the state’s tourism division and Proof Advertising, the cooperative program grant was open to nonprofit destination marketing organizations to provide digital and social media advertising.
The Corsicana Visitors Bureau (CVB), under the direction of Main Street and Tourism Director Amy Tidwell, received the notice of the new grant through membership in the Texas Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus. The CVB applied for a variety of advertising opportunities and received 100% of the request, with only six days to produce content. Local agency H2M Strategies assisted with the development of the quick turnaround campaign.
The grant will include a variety of new and currently used methods of promoting visitation to the city and overnight stays in hotels. With geo-fencing, digital ads will be seen on mobile devices both in Texas and in surrounding states. Mobile speed targeting will be seen by potential visitors moving on major highways and interstates, suggesting a visit to Corsicana. The traffic count currently on the I-45 corridor between Houston and Dallas is 293,000 vehicles weekly, with elevated numbers during peak travel seasons.
Corsicana’s visitor assets will be presented as social stories on Travel Texas’ Facebook and Instagram, which has 650,000 total viewers combined.
In addition, Travel Texas partnered with Expedia for a Texas Destination platform for the campaign. Expedia currently sells rooms for more than 187,000 hotels and motels in Texas.
The ad campaigns follow the categories of Arts and Entertainment, Cool Places on Hot Days, Exploring the Past, Shopping Downtown and Tastings all around Town, which will feature the Palace Theatre, Art Alley, Warehouse of the Living Arts, Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency, Lake Halbert, Richland Chambers Lake, Altitude H2O, Bronze Statue Tour, Pearce Museum, Pioneer Village, mentioning 35 merchants and 17 dining spots all around town, Angelita Winery, Brick Streets Brewery, and Cassaro Winery.
According to Travel Texas, the goal and objective is to capture the attention of potential visitors as the industry recovers, by elevating the advertising campaigns already created by the local Visitor Bureaus. The new digital campaign could potentially deliver 5x the CVB’s annual budget, all from April through August. “The Corsicana Visitors Bureau works diligently to get Corsicana in the minds of as many potential visitors as possible. This new cooperative program, completely free to us, showcases Corsicana exactly like a major Texas tourist destination. The results of the various opportunities will inform us how we can utilize more of these types of inventive advertising with our own budget,” said Amy Tidwell.
The Corsicana Visitors Bureau is a 13-board member-driven department within the city of Corsicana, chaired by Dr. Diane Frost through 2024. Its purpose and objectives are to promote, support and maximize lodging occupancy. For more details, contact Amy Tidwell at atidwell@corsicanatx.gov.
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