Brand USA Talks Travel: Episode 61 – South Dakota’s Digital Passports with Mike Gussiaas
Recorded live at esto in Grand Rapids Michigan this is brand USA talks travel esto is the Premier annual learning and knowledge sharing forum for Destination marketing professionals we’ve brought the podcast to esto to keep you current with new trends and tools in the travel industry here’s your host Mark leus What
Would most people find surprising about South Dakota what surprises most people is they have this perception of the Upper Midwest right it’s all flat Frozen Prairie and as far as what we do have for our Landscapes and what people do find there they’re floored you know we
Have the Black Hills out on the west side you know where Mount Rushmore is located and people have no idea that you have this beautiful old mountain range it’s just this playground you know it’s all accessible too it’s not something like the more extreme mountain ranges where you’re confined to one Trail
Between 14,000 ft Peaks it’s old it’s aged it’s well used it’s got a certain patina that patina I like that word you get extra points for using the word patina Mike guses is the Global Marketing and brand strategy director for South Dakota Department of Tourism welcome Mike thanks thanks for joining
Us here at esto tell us about your unique tourist pass I’ve heard some things about it but I don’t think I completely understand it there’s a tech partner we have uh band Wango band Wango band Wango sounds like a rock band yeah I know right that’s what we thought
We’re going to go on tour with these guys and see what happens they made this software that really does make it easy for dmos to put together these passports or paid passes or that sort of thing right and as what we’re trying to provide consumers like some of the
Hardest thing is that all the information that’s out there right trying to cut through the Clutter and really get specific and planning and something like a gamified passport program where you can really encourage people to start traveling to places that are a little bit off the beaten path
Right that would be harder to try to discover or figure out how to get there you know some of these passports is something that once they download it Beyond just discovering new places they have that map function where they can get right there is it an app so it’s a
Mobile based web application W it’s a WAP very close to an app just something that people access through their browser and then they can put on their home screen access almost like app pretty easily so pretty amazing stuff but it’s something for us like as a DMO we try
Getting into very specific or Niche campaigns interest that sort of thing right it provides us an opportunity where we can start engaging Partners in a way that we haven’t been able to do before so working with the Arts councils and our artist in South Dakota this is
Where we just rolled out a state of create passport that’s highlighting and focusing on the Arts and again really helping visitors to the state and residents too discover all of the great art that exists that isn’t just say a Giant Mountain car in like we have at Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse Memorial
Or say art alley in Rapid City but all the things in between or all the different corners of the state and the public art that exists out there you know one thing too we’ve been trying to engage with our Native American friends right the various tribes that exist in
South Dakota there’s a lot of interest in tribal culture it started internationally and now it’s really become even domestically we’re seeing a lot more want and curiosity around that Native American story unfortunately it’s one where we’re kind of in that weird place where there’s nothing that really
Truly exists tours or those sort of things that International or domestic Travelers could buy into so you have to develop it I guess huh yeah and we’re working to develop something like that but having something like this in this passport that gives us that opportunity so is the whole thing called a passport
Or are there individual passports in the application yeah so that’s where we have individual passports so we have that technology with band Wango where then now we can get these thematic passports that we put out there oh I see so consumer downloads the app and then inside the app they get the passports
And the passports individually themselves so that’s the nice so every every passports like a piece of content Unique Piece of content rich media content that they can engage with right to where they can learn about these new places discover new places and then two really you know the bottom funnel stuff
Either go there either book drive direct you know they have it set up in a lot of different ways and then the nice thing is it gamifies everything right so if they go to so many different locations we have these fantastic prizes that was another opportunity for us to engage
With businesses across our state or artists that sort of thing where you know we got some pretty cool stuff where they can get custom field notebooks or even Custom Van shoes as part of our state of create I mean great great stuff that just allow us to have fun and
Really reward them is it multimedia so yeah it is a multimedia passport where again as someone you know they get this web based application and they can start really discovering so we can put content in there besides just say General listing information or the contact information you might need of ours
Website phone number directions that is where we can put in a little bit more you can put in little video clips or audio files or whatever it is that again really might help give people the idea of what this experience could be that they’re you know or this location or
This place this business and so does it track the user so that they’re able to actually receive content where they are yeah so you can you know do things where you can what’s nearby you know that sort of stuff we have Geo fenced areas right
So when they get to a certain radius of a defined place it triers it triggers that where they can then check in so again it’s one of those where you know you’re trying to encourage people to get out there you’re trying to reward them for it they can just check in track that
Stuff add up their totals or add up the points or the locations the stops unlock these fantastic prizes that we were able to put together and reward them for are you able to do push notifications through it we can and that’s why too like it was nice to discover that
Platforms like this existed out there that could make our job a hell of a lot easier where push notifications all sorts of things on the backside so for seeing you know activity that people are so close to a stop or you know something or maybe not engaging or not using
There’s those notifications you could push out there or you can message with them just to try to get things going again and I’m guess there’s an analytics dashboard on the back oh yeah and that’s always a fun part right I mean I think as you know like my job in marketing and
When you’re putting together and someone ask like well how’s this doing you know to be able to go on the back end to a dashboard and see like we have people from all across the country coming here here’s how many check-ins I think too we’ve been surprised that what have been
Our top check-ins with our c a great fines passport which is our first one right we put this together trying to get people off say the interstate away from just Mount Rushmore and the really big stops that we’re known for and try to get them out to the different parts of
The state to disperse visitation and hopefully make things a little bit easier a little bit lighter for people and it’s working you know part of our mission to Brand USA is to push people Beyond The Gateway this is a very similar thing except on a state level
Where you’ve got these tent pole places to go everybody has them on their bucket list yep but then you want to get them to go to other destinations they may not be aware of and that’s what we’ve been maybe most surprised by that was the
Goal for this and then to see the number one check-ins there are the breweries in a small town that maybe just opened a couple years ago that again if people are going to the temple locations or the Gateway cities and that sort of stuff in South Dakota they’re not going to be
Able to find that so it’s really been fascinating to see these small m p these places off the beaten path and so how do people get product in it do they pay you to do that or is it free or what’s the financial arrangement for us it’s free
Because we’re tax funded and everything I’ll have to say was probably the funnest project we’ve had internally was working on okay what are we going to do who’s going to be a part of it so we went through a real Discovery process right where we had a survey that we sent
Out to our industry asking people people Statewide what are your hidden gems where do you take your family and friends what’s the place that you think everybody should know about from there we then of course go internal even just uh survey to our full team with everybody going to all four corners of
The state just to see what sort of locations that we could dig up and then from there we layered in Google ratings reviews notes that we have really evaluated are people set up for Walkin traffic or to be discovered or is their business model something different where
Maybe maybe they can’t be a part of a passport like this because if someone just came in off the street they wouldn’t be able to provide that experience to them so the process that we went through this I mean it ended up being meeting after meeting hour after
Hour of us evaluating information that we did take in from the surveys and whatever else and then applying the ratings but it was fantastic I mean I’ve been working with the department for six years I’ve been in the tourism industry in South Dakota probably eight years
Beyond that so almost 15 years lived in South Dakota my whole life and there were so many places that I got to discover myself through this process that got me excited where I’m like wait what this actually exists are you kidding me had no idea and I can’t even
Tell you how many times as a team we had that reaction which is the other thing too I think when you’re putting something together like that and you feel that energy yourself just in that Discovery or that process you know that that’s translated on the other side and
We’re seeing that the challenge that we all face when we develop apps is adoption by consumers how do you get over that challenge you know that’s one I think we’ve really been helped you know with the pandemic and how that’s changed things so much right you know QR
Codes first made their appearance years ago and then quickly went away here in America anyways because no one liked using them especially say older demographics or whatever now with pandemic and all the need for touchless experiences menus being online or that sort of stuff we’ve really seen this technological adaptation from audiences
That probably might not have existed before something like that so when we first set this up we were looking at do we have a print component or a physical passport or that sort of thing too that we could have with it and we’ve really found that we haven’t had the need yet
We haven’t had people complaining so how do consumers find out about it so that’s where we push it through a lot of our own channels where we’re having that secondary contact with someone so the first thing about South Dakota is just even getting people interested or
Letting them you know we have the big things the temp pole stuff we put out there just to get someone’s attention once then we get them into our environment where they’re maybe engaging with our website or maybe signed up for an e newsletter or requested a print vacation guide any of those channels
Where we know we have their attention and we can really start getting into the granular the details a little bit that’s where then we found that that’s the perfect opportunity for us to present something like this as hey you’re seeing all these great places to go know
There’s more here’s a tool that you can use to discover those and hopefully make your travels once you get here extremely easy when did you launch this our first one came out earli this year right in January we just rolled out our second one here our South Dakota state of crate
The Arts Focus one just a couple weeks ago and then next up we have our tribal Nations ochetti saken passport that again focused on the Native American places the restaurants all of those if one of our listeners wanted to download the app to give it a spin where would
They find it so they could go to travel South dakota.com and search great finds or even just passports that’s where then someone could find the full list cuz as we’ve got these now coming online we have a landing page that shows all the niche passports and it makes it easy
Where they can get to it download it start exploring and having a great time any plans to do it in other languages other than English we haven’t even thought about that so that was a fantastic question and a little light bulb because it is one of those where I
Think depending on how this works it definitely could be worth our time I have been surprised based on the analytics to see you know we thought this would be first a great way to engage instate buiness visitation especially to as people are still getting comfortable maybe getting out
There or that sort of thing we’ve seen how because we are such a road trip destination we figured that obviously this is the perfect sort of thing for that as well what has been surprising is to see the international uses of it we wouldn’t have expected that right but
Even just the past couple weeks I think we had five different countries represented to where it was about 3% of our passport activity that was happening was International audience which is consistent with what we see in South Dakota anyway as being so landlocked as far as as International visitation it’s
It’s still small we still have a lot of growth opportunity there right but they’re using it already so at some point in the future I mean that’s one of those based on what sort of activity we get the audience we have coming we for sure could do that because you just load
Up content so if that content is in German or whatever it might be we could totally do that I think that opportunity or ability is there excellent I hope you test it that was a good idea so again that’s going be something we’ll start workshopping let’s move off the app for
A second and talk just in general about South Dakota South Dakota is one of the few states that actually stayed open during the pandemic tell me about that so obviously there’s maybe a lot of headlines and whatnot about that but we were fortunate because of maybe our
Offering because we are such a rural State and so much of what we do have that makes us special that people are really drawn to are our outdoor recreation opportunities you know the national parks the state parks everything we have so 2020 and 2021 were both All Things Considered really good
Years for us 2020 we were again very very fortunate and that really set us up well too for 2021 I think the amount of interest and awareness around South Dakota is just a vacation destination really kind of changed during that time so we had really good years our rebound
Was definitely a lot quicker than a lot of our industry Partners across the United States this is a question I’ve asked a number of our guests here at esto did the pandemic shift travel interest in South Dakota tell me how yeah you know it’s one of those where
May be a really bad joke that I like to make sometimes in you know presentation I love bad jokes any of my friends will tell you you know sometimes when you are up in the Upper Midwest right like it takes a pandemic for someone to start
Looking at you you know and be like wow that doesn’t sound so bad which you know I mean it’s maybe a bad joke too cuz it’s one I think maybe undersells what we have you know in the state but yeah definitely we got looks from people that
Maybe we wouldn’t have before and once we got that look and they started discovering I mean that’s where we saw that interest where they’re like oh wait a minute this is not what I expected this is not what I thought it would be again if we can just get that awareness
And we get people looking I mean that’s where we can provide a little bit of surprise and you know a fantastic experience two other things about South Dakota that I don’t know I’ve heard it described as having exotic nature what does that mean EX exactly it’s funny you
Know that’s something too that we talk about sometimes internally or with our state industry Partners right cuz I think in destination sometimes like well I don’t know like why would anyone want to come here I I mean well we have beer we have a pizza shop we have a record
Store it’s you know it’s usually the same story it’s the same story right or and then you can maybe look at others and be like well but we don’t have that and we don’t have that or we don’t have that right I think sometimes we can as
An industry be guilty of that but you know the thing with South Dakota that I always thought it was really funny was National Treasure 2 book of secrets I’m probably getting that title wrong a classic Nicholas Cage is that the one with I’m tired I’m hungry this car
Smells funny no that’s the first one sorry yeah no this is the one that was made Popular by uh introducing a lake behind Mount Rushmore so which is just hilarious to be at Mount Rushmore and hear someone especially like you know teenage kid being like hey is there a
Lake is that that must be where the lake is it must be behind there you know different Generations just knew the bad t-shirts with the backside showing but no this was the one that introduced the lake behind Mount Rushmore and it was one the the actress in there you know
She was from France and asked in Vanity Fair artst 10 years ago or so you know what’s the most exotic location you’ve been to and she said and I this is what I share all the time and she said South Dakota which I remember when I read that
I thought like what that’s crazy and I share that all the time I think with industry Partners it’s one that we talk about because it is exotic especially for the international audience I mean to get to the very middle of America I mean the geographic center of the nation is
In South Dakota not too far from where I live and I think when you are coming from across the seas to get to someplace that is so Inland and so rural that doesn’t have the populations that you do in those coastal cities it can be a really exotic amazing experience it’s
Always fun to talk to the international crowd that come in because that wonder and surprise that they have just because of that exotic nature where they’re probably going like where am I how did I get here this beautiful beautiful place so we try to talk about that all the
Time just remind our industry Partners like if you’re coming from California or if you’re coming from New Zealand if you’re coming from Germany why is South Dakota it’s an exotic destination that has that element of surprise what is the grade eight in South Dakota I mean
That’s where again I think as far as what people our surprise to discover about South Dakota don’t know is that we have the concentration of National Park units like we do it’s not just Mount Rushmore but it’s Mount Rushmore Badlands National Park Jewel Cave Wind Cave Min man missile Missouri River
Recreational area I mean these are all national park units they were’re fortunate to have in South Dakota plus we have a couple other things like crazy horse and Deadwood that have their own Mystery and are something that people are aware of so for us those are our big
Draws those are the temple attractions or places to see that people know about so the grade eight we package it up in a number put on a icon we can make it a passport to get people come nice you’re convincing me I got to get a South
Dakota you never been that’s the thing people are always like oh I’ve been to 45 States but north coota south coota Nebraska again like that Upper Midwest people tend to maybe not think of about it but again come visit see the grade A I would just say start there check out
Grade eight start looking for that and that’s where we can usually start making that cell I mean there are some fantastic locations that I think people would have no idea existed before we go tell me about your experience at esto I love esto this is year number eight for
Me attending and it’s always just mindblowing the speakers the sessions you’re watching everybody get older I have right and then I think that’s too that realization of like oh I’m older I’m part of the Gray beard crowd or something here so yeah it’s been eight years but I think the eso experience of
Just you walk away from here with a notebook full of exclamation points and ideas and things you want to go back like now foreign language passport you know I’m going to add that to the list but I can’t say enough about what the team does putting on this conference the
Takeaways you learn and I think too the sharing that just everybody has industry Partners do I mean that’s maybe something unique for our industry that you know everybody comes and they share their wins their losses you know what worked what didn’t and I think just fostering that collaborative Spirit you
Can’t come to this and not walk away like inspired to get back and just start working for what’s next full of Amazing Ideas thanks so much for joining me today Mike really appreciate it no this was great thank you for having me this has been fun we’ve got a lot of great
Guests this year at esto I hope you’ll either listen to these special episodes daily or binge listen when we push them out to your favorite podcast platform I’m Mark lapedus thanks for listening this is brand USA talks travel at esto if you enjoyed this episode from esto please share it with your friends
Live From ESTO:
For our final episode live from ESTO in Grand Rapids, we speak with Mike Gussiaas, Global Marketing and Brand Strategy Director for the South Dakota Department of Tourism. Mike tells us about South Dakota’s initiative to provide visitors with a digital travel pass app that spreads visitation from the gateway cities and landmarks to every corner of the state. We also learn about the surprising effect that South Dakota’s exotic nature has on international visitors.