The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium was awarded $10,000 in grant funding from the Iowa Tourism Office, a division of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, to support the River Museum’s Digital Targeted Marketing Campaign in Illinois and Wisconsin during the summer of 2024.
This project will target two primary tourist destinations – Galena, Ill. and Madison, Wis. during peak tourism season. The campaign will employ geofencing, video-pre-roll, streaming (OTT), and podcast ads to capitalize on the River Museum’s proximity to Galena, which hosts one million visitors in tourism each year, and Madison’s Henry Villas Zoo, a highly-regarded Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) facility that attracts family groups and demographics similar to the River Museum. The digital campaign will target in-market audiences that have yet to engage with the River Museum and Dubuque, to widen the organization’s reach with new markets, resulting in a successful customer acquisition strategy.
“We are appreciative of the support of the Iowa Tourism Office and Iowa Economic Development Authority for supporting tourism efforts across the state, especially as we work to increase awareness of what Dubuque has to offer as a vacation destination,” said Emily Adlfinger, Marketing & Communications Manager at the River Museum. “We have a great partnership with OnMedia and have been continuously impressed with their expertise in digital marketing and strategies for our regional markets as well as their abilities to identify new demographic groups.”
This project will advance the River Museum’s organizational efforts to reach new audiences and share the varied cultural exploration in Iowa. Through the campaign, the River Museum aims to support and increase the $16 million in tourist dollars the facility already attracts.
This project paid for in part by the Iowa Tourism Office.
