Georgia Aquarium turns the tide with omnichannel strategy

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE 

Driving repeat visits with a coordinated, full-funnel strategy

Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the U.S. and one of the biggest in the world — with over 11 million gallons of water — wanted to increase its online ticket sales. Well known for rare marine species and its conservation efforts, the aquarium faced a common challenge among destination brands: Many visitors viewed it as a one-time experience. 

To help change this perception and increase return visits to the immense attraction, the newly appointed agency, Doe-Anderson, developed a brand relaunch and a full-funnel media strategy. Its objectives were twofold: reach more relevant audiences and prove that a coordinated omnichannel approach could improve ticket sales for new and returning visitors. 

SOLUTION 

Connecting the sales funnel with omnichannel optimization

Doe-Anderson used The Trade Desk’s Kokai platform experience to launch a fully integrated campaign across connected TV (CTV), display, audio, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) channels, as well as offline media channels. The aim was to reach consumers across the sales funnel to build awareness, reinforce messaging, and drive conversions among nearby high-intent audiences. These audiences included those targeted through a membership program for repeat visitors in Atlanta as well as families within the surrounding area. 

The agency understood that channel overlap has a strong correlation with lower-funnel performance, so it tested Kokai’s omnichannel optimization feature. This allowed the campaign to use advanced bidding tools to encourage delivery to users who had already been exposed to messaging on another channel. Omnichannel optimization increases channel overlap by capitalizing on proven winning channel combinations. 

Koa Audiences, an AI solution designed to optimize a campaign’s audience strategy in real time, powered an effective prospecting approach, finding high-relevance behavioral and demographic audience segments. These segments were paired with Georgia Aquarium’s rich first-party campaign seed to help determine the highest-value consumers to target. The agency used Player Event Retargeting and insights from Foursquare’s visit feed to reengage with high-intent audiences. 

Throughout the campaign, several other platform features ensured the campaign was optimized effectively:

• Cross-device measurement and targeting ensured consistent reach across screens. 

• Our Universal Pixel captured results via real-time ticket sales. 

• Prism and Predictive Clearing worked in tandem to refine the audience targeting approach in real time.

RESULTS 

Lower costs and more conversions in a typically slower quarter

Doe-Anderson activated omnichannel optimizations midway through the campaign, marking a clear transition point to evaluate its impact on results. The campaign saw immediate gains when the feature was enabled. The cost per acquisition dropped by more than 36%. Importantly, the campaign reached 30% of converting ticket purchasers through more than one channel, an 11% lift from earlier in the campaign. 

Overall, Georgia Aquarium reported a strong quarter for ticket and annual pass sales. The results confirmed that increasing channel overlap helped move users down the funnel more efficiently, achieving the campaign’s goal of improving performance while sustaining awareness. 

Due to the campaign’s success, Doe-Anderson has since rolled out similar omnichannel optimization strategies to other client campaigns with plans to make it a standard practice for future omnichannel launches. 

Discover how adopting an omnichannel approach can help you drive real business outcomes. Contact us or reach out to your account manager at The Trade Desk.