Aspen Chamber Resort Association (ACRA) set out to showcase Aspen as a year round destination with a push for the spring, summer, fall seasons and cross promote those seasons during winter with social media. We achieved this with our overall "Defy Ordinary" campaign, endorsing how Aspen elevates vacations to defy ordinary.
Multiple promotions and contests were held across all channels throughout the year. These promotions largely focused on connecting with our social media visually to increase community engagement and interest in Aspen as a vacation destination in the spring, summer, fall and winter.
To help drive more tourism towards the early season of summer, ACRA branded the time of the year the "Secret Season" and created a booking promotion that was promoted across social media. On Instagram ACRA explained the "Secret Season" through beautiful imagery, posting all of the recreational activities visitors could enjoy in Aspen during the "Secret Season." The campaign led up to a giveaway on Facebook, with a trip to Aspen during the "Secret Season." We also hired professional photographers to help with imagery for our social media for cultivation of FOMO.
ACRA has seen tremendous growth across our social media channels as we continue to create compelling content that helps brand Aspen as a year round destination. Our social media efforts have defined Aspen as a year-round destination with a flair for culture and arts and knack for big city events in a small town. Visitors connect with our photos and content, seeing Aspen as a town filled with arts, culture, world-class dining and outdoor adventure.
All social media channels have grown substantially. The Visit Aspen (ACRA) Facebook page had 6,144 fans in May 2013, and grew to 25,205 in a year, a 310% increase, and passed 50,000 August 2014 (a 714% increase over 15 months or a 98% increase over 4 months). The page is now almost at 80,000 fans. Our social media efforts have defined Aspen as a year-round destination with a flair for culture and arts and knack for big city events in a small town.
The @AspenCO Instagram account was activated May 2013 and now has over 11,000 fans as of February 2015.
The @AspenCO Twitter account had 6,000 fans in May 2013 and grew to 8,272 followers in a year, a 38% increase, and has grown to nearly 10,000 followers.
The Visit Aspen Pinterest account had 254 followers in May 2013 and grew to 553 followers as of August 2014, a 117% increase.
Reservations for bookings in Aspen increased by at least 6% each month throughout the summer. We believe that we have achieved our goal for branding Aspen as a year-round destination, especially as summer has grown to be just as popular as the winter in Aspen. July is now the busiest month for the town of the entire year.
Various lists that we accomplished for Aspen over 2014 include:
