Convincing people to visit a non-traditional tourist destination isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish. Over the years we’ve worked with Visit North Platte to highlight their attractions, change perceptions, and drive visitation. In addition to the long-running and successful “Adventures of Buffalo Bill” campaign, we’re constantly looking for new and different ways to create attention and drive visitation.

We were challenged to find a way to attract new visitors to North Platte.

Our strategy was to leverage the WTF? aspect of an Avocado Launching Championship with the power of the internet.

We created a mascot character and branding for the event.

We produced a 30-second TV commercial starring Buffalo Bill, which ran during the Super Bowl. We then produced a 30-second radio commercial, which ran in Western Nebraska, Colorado, and South Dakota. We created animated clips, GIFS, memes, and sharable images to post to branded Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. We also created a registration website to convert visitors into competitors, and hung flyers around Lincoln, Nebraska to peak city-dwellers’ attention.

Radio spot:

Despite being a first-ever event and experiencing a postponement, 30 teams (of three people) registered to come to North Platte’s Buffalo Bill Arena to launch avocados via catapult, slingshot, trebuchet, and all manner of improvised devices. Book clubs, hotel employees, German cultural clubs, and two people in inflatable avocado costumes competed.

Prize money was won, beers were drank, hotel rooms were stayed in, and economic impact was recorded.