Utah Office of Tourism

The Utah Office of Tourism faced a great opportunity. Its budget was increasing 10-fold, but before it spent any money, tourism officials wanted to know what non-residents already thought of the state.

Image & Awareness research conducted by Strategic Marketing & Research, Inc., (SMARI) revealed both good news and bad news, according to Dave Williams of the Utah Office of Tourism. The good news was that people did not have a bad image of the state. The bad news was that they had no clear image of Utah.

“We learned from the image study that people did not realize things we considered iconic images of Utah” were actually in Utah, such as Arches National Park.

“SMARI confirmed we needed to do something to get our name out there,” says Williams. “It helped us craft our branding and ad campaign.”

And by following up the brand study with annual Advertising Effectiveness research, Utah has been able to refine its message and increase travel to the state.