Project Outcomes
STATS
Launched 3/21/24 (Data is still being collected)
Goals
Tell the story of Wisconsin's culinary scene in a way that improves perceptions of Wisconsin as an elevated, but still welcoming, culinary destination.
Drive an average of two pageviews per session and obtain an engagement rate of more that 55% (the global average).
Achieve 1 million page visits and drive traffic deeper into the main TW website as well as partner websites.
Utilize and amplify existing TW assets and content to achieve a low lift, high impact project launch.
CLIENT
Travel Wisconsin
Project Overview
About the Project
Bravo's Top Chef chose Wisconsin for Season 21, essentially a season-long infomercial that puts Wisconsin in the spotlight. To coincide with this, Travel Wisconsin launched an integrated campaign around all things culinary in Wisconsin. This included my primary role - creating the Top Chef landing page, meant to act as a central hub for Wisconsin's culinary scene and Top Chef in Wisconsin. The page launched on March 21st, 2024, the day after Season 21 premiered, and will be updated weekly as the show progresses.
The Solution
With a hard deadline, contractual obligations, and multiple agency partners, we quickly needed to align on content strategy and how we could leverage the content that Travel Wisconsin (TW) already had.
We knew that Top Chef would have a halo effect, driving tourism to Wisconsin for months and even years after the show finished. To capitalize on this, I pitched an interactive map that would allow fans of the show to see where the show filmed as well as other culinary gems across Wisconsin. This would give die-hard Top Chef fans and foodies alike the information they needed to experience Wisconsin's culinary scene for themselves.
To generate return visitors, I wanted the page to feel like a companion to the show with updated articles and map locations according to each week's show theme, allowing users to delve deeper into each episode and Wisconsin. Due to the amount of overhead required, themed articles were scrapped. However, the map — the page's key feature — launched with full functionality and is updated weekly.
The design for this page draws from the small-scale design system in Figma, which includes a typography scale, color palette, components, 8px spacing system (variables), and auto-layout. As the Travel Wisconsin ecosystem evolves, I'm looking to further mature the design system into something more fully-featured.
Major Page Features
Interactive Map
The map allows users to explore episode locations across the state and discover places that the show didn't feature but are still worth experiencing.
Interactive Sweepstakes Game "Feast or Fiction"
This feature allows us to collect first-party data, drive page metrics, and challenge assumptions that future visitors may have about Wisconsin and its food scene.
Curated Articles
A curated article slider was created to amplify Wisconsin's culinary story and to guide users deeper into the main Travel Wisconsin website. Most of these articles relate back to the show in some way. As data continues to be collected, the articles will eventually be rearranged in order of engagement level.
Launch & Monitor
The landing page recently launched and is off to a great start. We are still collecting data on traffic and other page metrics which will be analyzed closely over the next few months.
For a deeper dive into this project, please get in touch.
