Connecticut Office of Tourism: Full Color Connecticut

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Insights

It was fall of 2021. For the first time since 2019, travelers could enjoy fall activities while vaccinated. We knew it was the perfect opportunity to attract visitors to a New England state, but there was one problem: Connecticut isn’t known for its foliage. Despite having the longest foliage season in New England, Connecticut was not top-of-mind for leaf peeping like Vermont or New Hampshire.

Ideas

The campaign goal was to drive visitation to Connecticut during fall — and visitation to our website. So, we needed to show them why they should visit. We wanted visitors to think of us for our foliage — and go far beyond that. Connecticut is more than just the colors of our leaves; here you can experience so much more, from the blues of the shoreline and the greens of corn mazes to the purples of sunsets and golds of craft beer.

Impact

We successfully met our goals, tremendously increasing visitation and our online presence. We generated:

• 115 million impressions across tactics (110% more than fall 2020, and 22% more than fall 2019)
• 450 million PR impressions
• 220% times increase for in-state audiences in conversion from viewing marketing to visiting specific attractions over 2020
• 460% times increase for out-of-state audiences in conversion from viewing marketing to visiting specific attractions over 2020
• Substantially outperformed all other New England states in website traffic:
  • With over 1 million visits to the site between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, Connecticut’s CTvisit.com generated:
    • 53% more traffic than Rhode Island’s state tourism site
    • 167% more traffic than Vermont’s
    • 235% more traffic than Maine’s
    • 478% more traffic than New Hampshire’s
    • 2,905% more traffic than Massachusetts’