Visit Northvale: Should the Board Abandon Print for TikTok?
Visit Northvale is a regional destination marketing organisation with an annual budget of US$600,000. Last year it spent 70% on print brochures, newspaper inserts and a television advert, and 30% on digital. The campaign produced 1.2 million brochure requests but only 38,000 tracked bookings. Its website received 410,000 sessions, with a 0.7% booking conversion rate; 62% of sessions were on mobile. Social media has 46,000 followers but engagement is 0.9%. Accommodation providers report that 71% of their guests book within four weeks of arrival. A neighbouring region has gained attention with short-form video and local creators, and its visitor numbers rose 14%. Visit Northvale's board wants to stop all print spending and move the entire budget to TikTok and influencers. The marketing director is unsure.
1. Evaluate the board's proposal to move the entire budget to TikTok and influencers.
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The proposal is directionally understandable but too blunt.
For: 62% of website sessions are mobile, and the neighbouring region's short-form video coincided with a 14% rise. Reach and cost per view can be low.
Against: TikTok and influencers are strong at awareness, weaker at conversion. Visit Northvale's conversion rate is 0.7%, so the bigger constraint may be the booking path, not traffic. The 1.2 million brochure requests show that a substantial segment still responds to print, and cutting it entirely could lose older or higher-spend visitors. Follower count and 0.9% engagement are vanity metrics unless linked to bookings. Attributing the neighbour's 14% rise to TikTok alone is unsafe: other factors may explain it.
Better approach: a controlled reallocation. Cut print by half, move the freed budget into short-form video, creator partnerships and conversion optimisation, and keep a targeted print programme for the segments that use it. Set a 12-month test with pre-agreed KPIs. The board's instinct about direction is right; its all-or-nothing speed is wrong.
2. Recommend a budget split for the next year and justify it with the data.
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A funnel-based split for US$600,000:
- Conversion and website (US$150,000, 25%): the 0.7% conversion rate is the clearest bottleneck. Fix mobile booking, page speed, trust signals and abandoned-booking recovery.
- Performance search and retargeting (US$120,000, 20%): captures existing demand, especially the 71% who book within four weeks.
- Content and creators (US$120,000, 20%): short-form video and local creators for awareness, with usage rights for paid amplification.
- Targeted print and accessibility (US$60,000, 10%): reduce from 70% to 10%, focused on older and international segments and accessible formats.
- Measurement, CRM and data (US$60,000, 10%): tracking, attribution and post-stay surveys.
- Contingency and test budget (US$90,000, 15%): small experiments that can be scaled or stopped.
Justification: spend follows the constraint. If conversion rises from 0.7% to 1.4% on 410,000 sessions, that is an extra 2,870 bookings without any extra traffic. A good answer states assumptions and explains why not all budget goes to the top of the funnel.
3. Which KPIs should the DMO report to the board, and why is follower count alone inadequate?
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Report a small dashboard, not a single number:
- Cost per incremental booking, not cost per click.
- Conversion rate by device, especially mobile.
- Assisted conversions by channel, to capture the inspiration-then-search path.
- Average length of stay and spend per visitor, because visitor numbers alone can rise while value falls.
- Seasonality spread: share of visits in shoulder months.
- Brand awareness and consideration in target markets, measured consistently.
- Resident support, if the DMO also has a stewardship role.
Follower count is inadequate because it measures audience size, not behaviour, and can be bought. Engagement rate is better but still not a booking. The board should ask what decision each KPI changes. A good answer also mentions incrementality: comparing exposed and unexposed markets or running holdout tests, so the DMO does not claim credit for demand that would have existed anyway.