Find Your True North

Created in collaboration with Adventure Creative, the Find Your True North campaign captured a feeling that leads to self-discovery and connection. True North is a state of mind. It’s filled with a sense of adventure, culture, and curiosity. It isn’t a direction or place on the map; it's individual moments of awe that lead to self-discovery through destinations and the journey between them. Integrating beautiful landscapes and heartwarming adventures with purposeful messaging and strategic media placement, this 360º campaign positions Minnesota as more than another travel destination – a place that welcomes seekers of rich, meaningful experiences. And, it inspires people to share their experiences through word of mouth and social media.

The multi-year campaign invited consumers to “Find Your True North.” More than a tagline, this is an idea built on the shared values of adventure, culture, and curiosity; and a powerful way to shine a light on the experiences that make Minnesota worth getting to know.

The campaign spoke to our two key audience segments: Cultural Explorers, who like to escape into urban activities and seek out distinctive experiences, and Spontaneous Adventurers, who value spur-of-the-moment trips for the family and quality time in the great outdoors. Building seasonal narratives that allow our audiences to picture themselves enjoying Minnesota’s best cultural experiences and outdoor activities gives us the ability to showcase every region of our state while maintaining a consistent emotional connection through the Find Your Truth North personality and tone.

Additionally, we used MRI data to identify people who were inclined to travel to participate in specific passion activities, such as hiking, biking, and attending cultural events. We created targeted ads that invited travelers from around the country to find their True North in Minnesota.

The Find Your True North campaign greatly exceeded expectations and led to a high-performing year across KPIs. Across the campaign, there were served over 493 million impressions, leading to over 5.5 million website visits, an increase of 10% year-over-year (on a flat budget). The number of pageviews also grew by 2.6% year-over-year which meant 8.9 million pageviews of our content.

This increased traffic brought in a high volume of new users to the website, indicating an increase in overall reach without sacrificing other site metrics, such as email enrollment (one of the secondary goals) which was also up 8.9% YoY.

Every dollar spent on our Find Your True North campaign resulted in $180 incremental spend within the state of Minnesota, generating a $18 tax ROI for the state.