Mindy Simons, executive director of the Hayward Lakes Visitor and Convention Bureau, reported a sizable increase in fall website traffic and engagement during her presentation to the Sawyer County board.

Simons said overall website traffic was up 16.3% for the Aug. 1–Oct. 13 reporting window and that referrals from partners such as the Hayward Area Chamber and the Sawyer County Snowmobile Alliance have contributed to higher engagement. "The big spike that you see, is actually from, one of our initial posts about our fall color tours," Simons said, adding that webcams and the fall/winter activities pages were among the top performers.

She described a split YouTube campaign: one objective was pure video views (awareness) and the other was conversions (clicks into the site). Each campaign had an identical spend of $1,200; Simons said the awareness campaign produced 123,847 views while the conversion campaign generated about 10,008 engaged views and led to roughly 10,000 clicks into the website.

Simons noted the fall/winter activities page had about 35 clicks and 20 engaged sessions last year compared with roughly 3,000 clicks and about 2,900 engaged sessions this fall. When a board member asked why nearby Vilas County's numbers were higher, Simons said she would investigate that question at the Destinations Wisconsin conference in Madison.

The report was provided for information; no formal action was taken.