CLIENT: Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians calls its beautiful home the Qualla Boundary, which is perched in the oft fog-capped Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina.

WHAT DO THEY OFFER?

Literally hundreds of cultural, historic, and outdoor adventures, many of which somehow manage to combine all three types at once. Scholars debate precisely how much history there is to explore (11,000 years? 12,000? 13,000?), but suffice to say, the Eastern Band offer intriguing ways to interact and engage with the Cherokee people and their stories. From the Cherokee story as told under the stars, “Unto These Hills,” to Oconaluftee Indian Village to the Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual, Inc. and its neighbor, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, there are major attractions to see and remember. They also boast some of the best fly-fishing in the southeast, and the successful reintroduction of a native elk herd. For those with a gambling spirit, there’s Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, and for mountain bikers, the new Fire Mountain Trails.

THE ELEMENT EFFECT:

Seeing a largely untapped opportunity to reposition and rebrand strategically, Element helped Cherokee see itself as grand enough to be an overnight destination. By pulling together key decisionmakers, tribal leaders, and the Destination Marketing Organization of Cherokee, Element built Cherokee’s first-ever brand, proceeding to weave it into a very large tapestry of advertising executions, including: a new website, rack brochures, TV spots, short films and branded content, virtual reality and 360 degree video projects, PR, research, radio spots, print ads, swag, tchotchkes, T-shirts––over our years of grateful service, we’ve done just about everything there is to do.

STATS + HIGHLIGHTS:

Over the course of our engagement, Element reversed a 24-year decline in attendance at “Unto These Hills” (UTH), the drama of the Cherokee story. Total website sessions have increased 447%, with a 265% increase in pageviews. New users to the site are up 408%. More recently, 108,331,693 impressions were delivered in 2017, which was aided and abetted by 147,000 clicks and a .14% click-through rate. In terms of new users, 111,132 saw our ads and returned to the VisitCherokeeNC.com website. And 42,671 were view-thru conversions, while 68,461 were click-thru conversions. Video ads were played 3,018,235 times with a completion rate of 58%. And in 2017, Cherokee’s hoteliers, campgrounds, and rentals saw room rates increase an average of 3.7%, with overall room revenue up 2%.