Tourism committee reviews year‑one ‘Destination Redmond’ marketing results, seeks council input on year two

Holman, chair of the tourism committee, told the Redmond City Council workshop that the city is roughly one year into a contract with Watson Creative to market Redmond as a destination. “So today is marks about a year since we've awarded the contract to Watson Creative on marketing Redmond as a destination,” Holman said.

Watson Creative gave a year‑one recap and results from a two‑month paid campaign, and described priorities for year two: raising awareness, improving conversion tracking from impressions to “heads and beds,” expanding partnerships and content capture, and placing branded materials in hotels and at the airport. “This last year has been about building the brand, building the flywheel,” said Matt Watson, creative director and CEO of Watson Creative.

The contractor said the phase‑one campaign combined Google and Meta advertising. Tati, senior digital strategist at Watson Creative, reported the campaign delivered about 171,000 page views and roughly 12,120,000 impressions, with a cost‑per‑visit of about $0.47 versus a forecast of $1.32. “We can tell you right now that, the campaign delivered 6 times what we forecast,” Tati said, and the team said the campaign sent roughly 35,000 visits to the site compared with a 6,000‑visit forecast. The contractor also highlighted video as a top performer, reporting a roughly 4% click‑through rate on a campaign video versus an industry average near 0.9%.

Watson Creative said lessons from the test will guide next steps: build more video and landing pages, create “lead magnets” to grow the email list, and improve conversion tracking so the city can better trace ad impressions to hotel bookings and TLT revenue. Alicia, senior account manager, said the work included brand development, a website, newsletter and social channels, and an editorial calendar for paid and owned media.

Council members asked about measurement and local economic impact. One speaker who identified himself as John said he tracks the industry’s STAR report and cited a year‑to‑date 10% increase in RevPAR (revenue per available room) for Redmond; the speaker said that growth increases transient lodging tax (TLT) receipts. “We pick out who our competition is... I looked at the Redmond 1, we're up year to date 10% in our what's called RevPAR,” John said. Watson Creative and the tourism committee told the council they expect to have clearer comparative metrics by the end of year two when more bottom‑of‑funnel tracking is in place.

The contractor described outreach and partnership plans that include discussions with the airport about displays and with the Oregon Cultural Trust about artist activations in airport space, seasonal campaign timing (a community‑facing push in September and airport placements in January), and production of branded swag for hotels and other locations.

No formal council action or budget vote occurred at the workshop. Council members and staff said they would review the proposed scope and timing, and continue discussing how to measure conversion to bookings and TLT revenue. Holman asked for council input on priorities moving into the new fiscal year.

The tourism committee and Watson Creative presented the campaign results and proposed priorities for the coming year; the city will collect additional performance data and bring revised metrics and any specific budget requests back to council before adopting new spending plans.