The Colorblind Viewer

By VML, Kansas City, USA

For Tennessee Department of Tourist Development

Highly Commended in category Public Relations

In subcategory Consumer Marketing

WPPED Cream
WPPED Cream
WPPED Cream
WPPED Cream
WPPED Cream
Project Description
The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development is charged with promoting the state of Tennessee to vacationers in the United States as well as internationally. One of Tennessee’s biggest tourist attractions is its scenic beauty, especially during the autumn season when the state boasts some of the most vibrant fall foliage in the country. But with so many other states promising travelers similar views, Tennessee had to remind travelers how special the state’s fall scenery really was.
We realized there are roughly 13 million Americans who have never seen the changing fall colors because they suffer from red-green color blindness. So we wondered, what if Tennessee could be the place they saw the true colors of fall for the first time? To make it possible, we created the Colorblind Viewer. The world’s first scenic viewer equipped with high-tech lenses that help alleviate red-green colorblindness. Three of these unique viewers were permanently installed at the state’s best scenic look-outs. As colorblind people used them, and witnessed the red and orange glory of fall for the first time, we captured their emotional reactions for a short film that was shared online.
Agency Solution
Tennessee wanted travelers to know it has some of the best fall foliage in the country. The challenge was standing out to an audience that was bombarded with the same picturesque fall landscapes from dozens of states, year after year. Many even saw it out their own windows. Fall colors had become wallpaper to them. Our aim was to get them to see fall beauty, specifically in Tennessee, with fresh eyes by showcasing it through the eyes of colorblind people experiencing it for the first time. So instead of buying into the cluttered paid media space, we bought three scenic viewers and some high tech lenses and created a new application of technology that was inherently news worthy. This, in turn, also opened the state up to a brand new audience: the millions of Americans affected by colorblindness who may not have previously been interested in fall foliage travel.
We focused on driving earned media support and PR coverage. After the viewers were installed in Tennessee on October 26th 2017, we invited colorblind people to come use them and captured their reactions for an emotional film we shared online. Local and national news outlets, such as The Associated Press, were also invited to attend the filming to capture their own footage and stories. We then distributed our film, as well as outtakes, to additional news outlets. Because of the limited window of fall foliage, we used some paid media to promote the film on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter to 21-to-54-year-olds within short driving distance of Tennessee. Secondly, we targeted people with colorblind-related search history. As the news stories began to spread, we used paid media to help amplify the best coverage.
Please rotate your device
to portrait orientation