Dive Brief:

• Travel Oregon is bringing the state's diverse features and outdoor adventures to life using bright, fantastical animation for its "Only Slightly Exaggerated" spring campaign, per a news release. 
• The effort, produced in partnership with the agency Wieden+Kennedy, features a 90-second animated video with an original score performed by the Oregon Symphony. The cast is made up of human characters and native Oregon plants and animals, including a large bunny, cycling caterpillar and gray whales. The spot is fantastical but each location included is a real place in Oregon. 
• Travel Oregon launched the campaign in Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Phoenix. It includes cinema, TV, digital and out of home, and will be extended online throughout the year via immersive content, GIFs, still images and short animations focused on the state's seven main tourism regions. 

Dive Insight:

Travel Oregon's new campaign is visually impressive, stylistically recalling the 2-D animation of Disney or Japan's Studio Ghibli, and puts a creative spin on the traditional travel ad. The 90-second video has become a small hit on YouTube, racking up north of 750,000 views, and the brand is supporting the creative with shareable content formats like GIFs, which animation is well-suited for. 

While much of travel is about adventure, potential tourists may still prefer to get a glimpse of real-life places before they commit to a location and book a trip. Marketers can best serve potential travelers with simple messages that show off a destination's best assets and focus on tangible ways consumers can benefit from visiting. In an Expedia Media Solutions study, 78% of travelers said informative content from destinations or travel-related brands influenced their travel decisions, and 46% said ads with informative content were influential.

Millennials prefer to spend on experiences like travel over products, and 72% of millennial women say spending on experiences makes them happiest, a recent study by Merkle and Levo found. Expanding the campaign, which attempts to "capture the magic" of Oregon, with a multichannel approach could trigger more online traffic or social media engagement for Travel Oregon, as potential visitors seek out information about the real spots featured in the video.