Laurel Highlands is a scenic vacation destination in southwestern Pennsylvania that draws in visitors with its rich history and outstanding outdoor activities. Before selecting Pixlee TurnTo, the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau saw value in UGC but encountered difficulty with their previous platform, Stackla. To grow their UGC program and effectively harness their visitors' voices, the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau made the switch to Pixlee TurnTo.
Before moving to Pixlee TurnTo, the Laurel Highlands marketing team used Stackla to launch their UGC program, but it left much to be desired in terms of ease of use and analytics. As Kayleigh Dumas, Marketing Assistant of Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau shared:
“I was the main person who had my hands in Stackla, and now Pixlee TurnTo. I just absolutely love all the functionality from Pixlee TurnTo compared to Stackla – it's much easier to use. Pixlee TurnTo is huge for us. I absolutely love the analytics we get from it. I am in Pixlee TurnTo every single day approving and requesting pictures, which I never really was with Stackla. Once I got Stackla set up, I left it alone because it was a little difficult to use. I love being able to be in Pixlee TurnTo every day and find good pictures and approve them so that we can use them on all of our platforms as well as our website.”
From a day-to-day user perspective, the switch to Pixlee TurnTo made logical sense. But the switch to Pixlee TurnTo impacted high-level users as well. Jared Bundy, the Director of Digital Marketing at the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau explained how Pixlee TurnTo was able to save him time while also offering increased visibility into his team’s productivity.
“It's so much easier to jump into Pixlee TurnTo and find a permissioned photo, and then schedule it right away. I also like the calendar in Pixlee TurnTo as it loads super fast. I can see what Kayleigh scheduled, what she has going on that day, and what we're sending out on each platform. In Stackla, maybe that functionality was there, but it wasn't as user-friendly. And even down to the analytics where I have a monthly report. I can easily set the dates and find out how many loads, how many clicks and what was our top performing content.”
For the Laurel Highlands Visitor Bureau, being able to scale the efforts of their small team is critical for their success. And as the travel bureau for a 3,000 square mile location spanning across multiple counties, the team has to be able to pinpoint UGC by each local business to represent the diverse businesses within Laurel Highlands. With Pixlee TurnTo, the Laurel Highlands team was able to get the granularity needed to scale. Kayleigh's experience with the content collected has exceeded expectations.
“I'm pulling in twice as many photos from what I had in Stackla – and these photos are good photos that I get to pick between. And they're in so many different locations! I can put all of our dining partners in there, and I know I’m not going to miss anything.”
Switching technology providers can be time-consuming and difficult when not executed correctly. When the Laurel Highlands Visitor Bureau sought to switch to Pixlee TurnTo, Jared was able to quickly remediate any concerns of lost time or content.
“I definitely had concerns with switching to a new platform as to how long it would take and if there were would be a period of time with no UGC on the site. But I didn't have to worry about anything like that. The transition was super smooth. I’m instantly able to communicate value through the analytics portion of this. I know that the time savings for me are measurable and I would recommend other people exploring the same switch.”
Content, especially UGC, can offer a point of collaboration and provide agility to teams when executed effectively. The team at Laurel Highlands understands this exceptionally well. Jared shared his need to be agile through content and technology.
“Today, everyone's wearing twenty different hats in their organizations. It's really tough to learn new software. Finding a platform that is incredibly easy to use, to curate, to publish and then to get stats from, like Pixlee TurnTo does – that's what I'm looking for from a UGC provider.”
Kayleigh echoed Jared’s sentiments.
“I'm not spending 90% of my time in Pixlee TurnTo– it's just so useable. I don't have to think about it, the filters are phenomenal and it takes the weight off my shoulders.”
Between a quick launch, impeccable reporting capability, and ease of use, the Laurel Highlands team is set up to succeed with UGC through Pixlee TurnTo.
Pixlee TurnTo’s mission is to enable brands to celebrate and market with the voice of their own customers.
Pixlee TurnTo’s mission is to enable brands to celebrate and market with the voice of their own customers.