Why Wyoming? That's WY

The Wyoming Office of Tourism is kicking off a new tourism campaign that answers the question, “Why visit Wyoming?”

The campaign focuses on the personal impact of Wyoming’s less-traveled places, summed up with the brand and tagline: “That’s WY.”

The new brand was developed by the Department of Tourism’s new advertising agency, Milwaukee-based BVK, whose website claims to be “for brands that create life-changing experiences.”

The content of the new campaign is focused on “hero stories,” showcasing the impact a visit to Wyoming can make on the individual.

BVK was hired in July of 2015 and completed a summer production shoot in northwest Wyoming in August. It also launched a media campaign to complement the Disney film, “The Good Dinosaur,” which prominently features Wyoming landscapes. The effort resulted in more than 800 stories in the media reaching approximately 796 million people, including a feature in Travel & Leisure titled “Wyoming Invited Fans of Disney-Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur’ to Participate in the state’s Paleontological Experiences.”

Wyoming Office of Tourism Director Diane Shober explained that “The Good Dinosaur” partnership was called on the world’s top 10 best tourism campaigns by the Toronto Sun.

The challenge of any marketing campaign is to top itself, and that gets harder to do while building on successes. By any measure, 2015 was a record-breaker with visitation reaching 10.5 million collected in local and state taxes.

But Shober does not believe that Wyoming has reached a saturation point in the tourism market, and feels positive about growth opportunities in 2016.

“Our ‘That’s WY’ creative strategy has grown out of and is designed to build on previous marketing efforts,” she said. “The brand platform and the supporting campaign personalizes the Wyoming experience an allows potential visitors to see themselves in our destination.”