The Arts Are Open Campaign

The Situation

Like many other businesses in San Francisco, arts & culture organizations were devasted by the pandemic. How could San Francisco Travel assist in the recovery of these organizations to show the breadth and depth of indoor and outdoor experiences available with our limited funds?

The Solution

We partnered with Marriott, United Airlines, and San Francisco’s Grants for the Arts to develop the Arts Are Open campaign, a first-of-its-kind effort to attract visitors from within the state of California by illustrating the breadth and depth of arts offerings in San Francisco.

We developed video and advertising content that showcased outdoor and indoor artistic experiences safely open to visitors. We incorporated safety protocols by showing masked visitors, hand cleansing stations, signs for social distancing, and partitions that separated visitors from workers.

The vistas, open spaces, and stunning artworks all formed a narrative of what San Francisco had to offer in its diversity of neighborhoods, art forms, and settings.

The Tactics

Our integrated marketing campaign for the Arts Are Open Campaign consisted of four components.

The Creative

The Results

• $5,422,285 generated in hotel revenue.

• Nearly $760,000 was generated in tax revenues that supports arts and culture organizations

• $264.20 : $1 Return on ad spend (ROAS)

• 27,216 direct room nights at San Francisco hotels

• 9,000 in United Airlines flight sales