Lagrant Communications - I Love New York Campaign

Background - In 2023, our team partnered with Lagrant Communications to conduct a comprehensive research project in service of the I Love New York marketing campaign targeting Black/African American travelers. Specially, Lagrant Communications aimed to uncover insights concerning existing initiatives, programs, and organizations across the state to enhance travel to and within the state.  The overall purpose of the research was to inform government, business and other entities throughout the state and help them promote their programs and services to Black/African American travelers.

With this as background, the project set out to understand how the target audience:

• Makes travel decisions
• Learns about or gathers information regarding various travel sites
• Identifies activities or attractions for or during travel

Solution - To achieve project goals, we created a structured two-phase research plan that involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first phase, we held (6) 90-minute online focus groups, targeting three specific groups: in-state travelers, drive-city travelers, and people from high-density markets. We also included parents of children under 18 to understand how families make vacation decisions. Each focus group had eight participants and took place online using a research platform that allowed observers and moderators to communicate without disrupting participants. We recorded and transcribed all discussions for analysis.

Phase I

For this first phase, we worked with our client team to develop a comprehensive discussion guide tailored to the focus group objectives. The discussion guide focused on gathering key insights about travel decision-making, information-seeking behaviors, and planning activities and destinations. We adjusted the guide as needed during data collection to ensure clarity. After completing Phase 1, we provided a detailed analysis of the research findings through a PowerPoint presentation, delivering actionable insights to our client shortly after the project's conclusion.

Phase II

In the second phrase of this project, we designed and administered a survey reaching a base audience of N= 500 to ensure adequate validating result for Phase 1.  We used Phase 1 learnings and client feedback to develop the questionnaire. We then used vetted online panels to recruit survey participants and monitored results as they came in to ensure both adequate responses and to screen for any anomalies in findings.

Once we collected all survey data, we provided our client team with in-depth analysis highlighting statistically significant differences between key segments and compiled our findings in a comprehensive final report delivered in a Power Point Presentation that all findings from the project.