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Stuart Butler is a trained rocket scientist turned content marketing rock star.
Although his career as a rocket scientist didn't take him anywhere, he used what he learned to pursue a career in marketing that has spanned over 20 years. Today, as Chief Marketing Officer of Visit Myrtle Beach, Stuart is looking to revolutionize not just the field of destination marketing, but ALL marketing.
And it seems to work.
Stuart and his team created “Traveling the Spectrum,” a heartwarming, improvised six-part video series that follows three families with autism on their vacation (in Myrtle Beach, of course).
A deal with a well-known streaming service is expected to be announced soon. But for now, you can watch the trailer embedded here.
From storytelling to marketing strategy to sales plan, Stuart does something he believes few marketers are willing to do: He puts his brand ego aside, stops controlling the message, and recognizes that great content always puts authenticity first.
You can watch my interview with Stuart here or read on to learn more about the project and his marketing philosophy.
Based on the media company model
“We want to try things that people haven’t tried before and do them in a new way,” says Stuart.
When Stuart started three years ago, he knew times were changing. Destination marketing organizations like Visit Myrtle Beach spent the majority of their budgets on paid media. But when he ran a B2B agency in the hospitality space, the effectiveness of paid media was declining as consumers increasingly rejected advertising, starting with installing pop-up blockers in their browsers. In addition, platforms like Google and Facebook increasingly became gatekeepers of content and increased their advertising prices.
But Stuart had a plan. He believed the best way forward was to build his audience through his own media – what he calls “branded entertainment.”
“Instead of selling people something, we wanted people to make their own decisions, have their own thoughts and feelings; we wanted to influence their behavior so that they would choose Myrtle Beach as a destination instead of being told to [come]”, says Stuart.
With that philosophy in mind, Stuart set out to create a reality cooking competition show called “Chef Swap at the Beach” to highlight the 2,000 restaurants and amazing culinary scene in Myrtle Beach. The show featured two local chefs swapping kitchens and creating a surprise meal for a panel of judges. The show now airs on the Cooking Channel and other streaming networks and just entered its second season.
Stuart says Chef Swap at the Beach has been more successful in elevating the Visit Myrtle Beach brand in terms of media exposure and audience value than any of his previous paid marketing projects.
They also learned that if they follow two simple rules – entertain and help the audience – people will not only listen, but will tell their friends and come back.
The success of Chef Swap helped Stuart gain buy-in for other projects, but it still took time. He spent the first six to 12 months of his tenure educating his colleagues and the Visit Myrtle Beach board about the changing media landscape. (His physics background helped, as he knew how to break a problem down to its basic principles.) He knew it was a big step to convince them to rely less on paid media and invest in their own media projects.
“We were really methodical in building the building blocks and the framework for the argument,” says Stuart. “We wanted to do it in a way that was comfortable and digestible for people.”
So he started by asking them to commit 10% of the budget to some test owned media projects. It worked. And it helped Stuart get buy-in for his passion project, Traveling the Spectrum, which he describes as the culmination of a three-year strategy to move away from conventional marketing to a more progressive approach.
Storytelling is the heart of marketing
Myrtle Beach is best known for its 60 miles of beautiful sunny beaches, amazing attractions and award-winning restaurants. But what many may not know is that the area is a pioneer in autism-friendly travel.
In 2016, the Champion Autism Network (CAN) declared his hometown of Myrtle Beach the first autism-friendly destination in the United States. Myrtle Beach International Airport, in partnership with CAN, opened the “Quiet Room,” where families can calm a child during a tantrum, and it has become a model for airports around the world.
Additionally, Stuart and his team, in partnership with CAN, Autism Travel Club and TravelAbility, launched the Sensory-Friendly Pledge, “The Beach is for everyBODY.” Dozens of hotels, restaurants and attractions have signed it, committing to training their front-line staff to recognize and accommodate the challenges faced by people with neurodiversity. Stuart's team has created a special section on the Visit Myrtle Beach website to share its resources for families traveling with people with autism.
With those foundations in place, Stuart's team set out to create awareness that Myrtle Beach is an inclusive, welcoming place for autistic families and people with neurodiversity. Inspired by the reality show Love on the Spectrum, Myrtle Beach's marketing experts developed the concept to highlight the good and bad sides, as well as the breakdowns, that these families with autistic members experience.
Stuart had a clear vision for the project. “We don't want this show to be about Myrtle Beach. We want it to be about the challenges of traveling with autism. We don't want to tell people, 'Come to Myrtle Beach because we're sensory friendly.'”
“We want to spread the message that 87% of families who have a child with autism don't travel. And we think that's an injustice that needs to be fixed. We'll have more impact on the world if it doesn't look like an advertisement for a destination.”
Stuart enlisted Philadelphia-based The Workshop Content Studios, who had previously worked on Chef Swap, to develop Traveling the Spectrum. The series takes viewers behind the scenes of the unique experiences of sensory-friendly travel in Myrtle Beach. The show features three families – the Tilks, including Max, age 28, from Michigan; the Gielinks, including Brayden, age 14, from Ohio; and the Hills, including Mikko, age 2, from Texas.
“It's going to change the world. It's going to change the way people look at autism. It's going to show that there are different degrees of the spectrum,” says Stuart. “It's going to show that people can be part of the solution by showing a little more empathy and a little more understanding for people who are different from themselves.”
“And I think it's something the Myrtle Beach community will be really proud of because it shows how warm and welcoming we are.”
Stuart's team is also working on other innovative, non-promotional ways to tell the story that Myrtle Beach is an autism-friendly place. They collaborated with author Lynda Farrington Wilson on a children's book – “Splish, Splash, Squawk! Finding Joy in a Sensory-Friendly Vacation.”
They also have a podcast, “Life's a Beach… And Then You Die,” which tells stories about the human experience, including those with autism spectrum disorders. The multiplatform strategy ensures a consistent message. But for Stuart, it's all about one thing.
“I believe that marketers are storytellers. I believe that their job is to shine a spotlight on positive stories, whether it's a company, a service, or whatever we're trying to promote. In this case, it's really easy because we can tell real stories from real people.”
Measuring success
But how will Visit Myrtle Beach measure the impact of Traveling the Spectrum?
Stuart believes Myrtle Beach will attract more than enough travelers who realize they can travel despite the challenges. And it seems to be working. Stuart says people are naturally finding out Myrtle Beach is behind the Traveling the Spectrum project and spreading the word. The tight-knit autism community is sharing resources with each other.
“When you can reach such a collaborative audience, it accelerates adoption. And so we've seen that word of mouth will always be the most powerful form of marketing,” says Stuart.
This word of mouth can be seen on The Traveling Spectrum website. Just below the social media share buttons, you can see that over 870,000 visitors are supporting the website's message.
The trailer for Traveling the Spectrum has been viewed more than 750,000 times on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, and the number of media mentions has skyrocketed.
Stuart says just looking at those key KPIs shows the series is already a smash hit before it hits the streaming platform. And while he believes Traveling the Spectrum will lead to a noticeable increase in travel, especially for Myrtle Beach's most valuable first-time visitors, he thinks it will do something even better.
“It will change the perception of Myrtle Beach. People will see us in a whole different light. It will elevate our brand to a level we've never seen before,” Stuart says.
“Some of them are measurable, some of them are not. But even before the show has launched, we are very, very pleased with the results we have achieved. And once it launches, I think it will be on a whole new level.”
If you would like to help spread the word about the Traveling the Spectrum movement, visit the website, sign the pledge, and share it on your social platforms (or by word of mouth).
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Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
