TEXAS STATE PARKS
Belonging outdoors.
CHALLENGE
Texas State Parks turn 100 in 2023. But they couldn’t just look back. They had to look ahead and think about the next 100 years. Texas is growing, its demographics are changing, and it’s becoming more diverse every year. They needed a campaign that could begin nurturing the next generation of stewards and show new and diverse families that Texas State Parks are places where they and all Texans belong.
VALUE
If you didn’t grow up camping or being in nature, it’s easy to think you’re just not outdoorsy. But you don’t have to be experienced in the outdoors to enjoy a state park. So to encourage new generations of state park lovers, we specifically targeted families who’ve never been to one. With a small media budget of about $400K, the campaign generated 28 million impressions and more than 45K new visitors to the parks reservation page in just three months. Texas State Parks was also awarded the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management, and this campaign was used in their submission to help demonstrate the organization's commitment to diversity in the outdoors.
SERVICES
Strategy & Positioning
Visual Identity
Advertising
Digital
Film
Photography
CAMPAIGN THEME
In advertising and entertainment, we often see the most inaccessible versions of nature. Untouched wilderness. Remote mountain ranges. Exotic wildlife. For people who already know and love the outdoors, these visuals are exciting. But a qualitative audience research study revealed these visuals can feel intimidating, uninviting and unattainable for people who are newer to the outdoors. We needed to strike a different tone. Our campaign theme line is friendly and encouraging, and highlights just how easy it is to visit a state park.
FILM
How do you encourage a family to visit a state park for the first time? Show a family visiting a state park for the first time. We partnered with Hometeam to cast two real Texas families and document their first visits to two flagship state parks. We also worked with Hometeam to build out a diverse crew to make sure the production was representative both in front of and behind the camera.
Using a combination of still photography and video, we created a series of short, energetic spots for social ads that capture the fun and excitement of their visits in a really genuine and relatable way.
MUSIC
The spots needed to feel representative of Texas today. Another way to do that was through music. We explored songs from a cross-section of great Texas musicians and eventually licensed “People Everywhere (Still Alive)” by Khruangbin—an internationally known trio from Houston whose music spans many different genres and categories.
IDENTITY & PHOTOGRAPHY
Video ads were just one part of a yearlong, multi-faceted 100 Years campaign. To give all the materials a consistent look, we worked with the Parks team, Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation and campaign presenting sponsor H-E-B to create a 100 Years identity system.
With this campaign, we also needed to address a fundamental challenge to engaging diverse audiences — a lack of good images showing families of color in the outdoors.
It’s why we intentionally developed a video concept that uses still photography. While filming the spots, we were also able to capture hundreds of high-quality images the Parks could use in other communications and in their ongoing efforts to build a more inclusive photo library.
“To conserve the Parks for future generations, we need more people and companies to care about them. Butler helped us open new doors to both.”
ANNE BROWN, Executive Director at Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation
PEOPLE
A NATURAL PARTNERSHIP | The 100 Years campaign was a big collaborative effort two years in the making and included contributors across three organizations. We worked with leaders Anne Brown, Executive Director at Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation, and Rodney Franklin, Texas State Parks Director, to create the campaign vision and bring on H-E-B as the presenting sponsor. We developed campaign materials working side-by-side with the core marketing team at Texas State Parks and a variety of media, multicultural researchers and production partners.