The pristine Outer Banks beach vacation destination of Currituck County, NC has garnered a special place in the hearts and minds of East Coast travelers over the past few years by engaging potential visitors through carefully crafted web advertising messages managed by its agency of record, Ciniva Web Agency. When faced with the challenge of reaching new visitor markets outside of Currituck’s traditional East Coast audience, Ciniva suggested trying the relatively new Google TV Ads platform as an affordable method of creating awareness for the destination on a national scale.
“We try to stay on top of technology topics,” said Diane Nordstrom, Currituck’s Director of Travel & Tourism. “I think it’s pretty cool – you’d never expect Currituck would be an industry leader in this area.” Working with Ciniva Web Agency, Nordstrom and her team in Currituck County developed a stunning interactive Web presence supplemented with an active community of Facebook fans, a mobile app for iPhone, iPad, and Android users, and successful pay-per-click and TV advertising campaigns. This partnership has resulted in multiple awards for the tourism department. For the past three years, the visitor’s bureau has been recognized for having one of the best tourism websites and Internet marketing campaigns in North Carolina by the Destination Marketing Association of North Carolina.
As the awards for Currituck’s marketing program continue to pile up, so does the traffic into the website from visitors located outside the East Coast – visitors specifically reached through Google TV Ads’ network of national TV ad inventory. The Google TV Ads initiative, managed by Ciniva, not only attracted new visitors, but also improved the quality of these visits, with the average visitor from these TV ads spending three times the amount of time on the site and converting at almost double the rate of other advertising formats, including regional network TV buys.
“Currituck is a great success story,” said Robbie Foglia, Director of Paid Media for Ciniva Web Agency. “From the beginning, the Currituck team was interested in thinking outside the box to promote their stretch of the Outer Banks beachfront, and not only did we show them how to maximize their marketing budget, but we also helped them turn Currituck into one of the state’s most visible and desirable vacation destinations.”
As Currituck continued to see extremely positive results from the Google TV Ads campaign, the Google TV Ads team took notice and decided to recognize Currituck’s experience in an official case study, highlighting Currituck’s innovative usage of the Google TV Ads platform. “It is great to share with the industry how Currituck & Ciniva are leading the way in effective and accountable media,” shares Kallista Stephenson, Account Strategist with Google.
Nordstrom said she intends to increase usage of the Google TV Ads program in the future. “Calls started coming in from all over the country; places like California, Michigan, Illinois and other states where Google TV Ads was the only way they could have heard about us. I like to think that this campaign helped Currituck capture travelers dreaming about where to go.”
Ciniva’s participation in Google advertising has also proven beneficial for the agency, which serves clients throughout the United States and parts of Europe and the Caribbean with web design and development, mobile app development, and social media marketing. Google has recognized Ciniva Web Agency as a quality partner for its successful utilization of search and PPC tools, and recently invited the agency and Nordstrom to attend the annual Travel Forward conference held at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Ciniva Web Agency As experts in online marketing for tourism companies and destinations, CINIVA Web Agency of Virginia Beach has spent more than a decade successfully expanding awareness of domestic and international attractions and landmarks, hotels and resorts, and hidden gem vacation spots. Their long-term relationship with the Currituck County, North Carolina Department of Travel and Tourism has proven especially fruitful for the beach destination – adopting new innovations in marketing and Web design have helped the state’s “best kept secret” become a very popular destination for families, honeymooners, and others looking for affordable vacation alternatives. www.ciniva.com
Currituck County Travel & Tourism Currituck is one of the fastest growing counties in North Carolina. Beautiful, clean beaches, a high quality of life, and the perfect blend of history have made this part of the Outer Banks a popular destination for visitors and locals alike. The tourism website can be reached at dev.visitcurrituck.com.