Santa Monica Travel & Tourism

In the midst of the global pandemic, Santa Monica wanted to refresh their digital presence and re-introduce the destination as a hub to the greater Los Angeles area. They armed us with detailed traveler information. SMTT had analyzed the personalities of in-destination travelers and found 6 unique personas. We leveraged these along with 8 years of website data to add the cherry on top for the new site experience. The goal was to drive visits to local businesses and hotels, overhaul the digital experience to a true destination guide based on personality and travel preference, and ensure the website technology supported future growth.

Day or night?

A user interview revealed a comment that stuck with us – “There’s really two Santa Monicas. The carefree, sun-loving side that is the daytime, and a classy nighttime personality ready to explore top tier dining.” We turned this idea into a component that is reusable across the site.

Explore Santa Monica your way.

To fully embrace the 6 unique personas of the Santa Monica traveler, we created a “Build Your Own Experience” microsite. By answering three simple questions, visitors are connected to their persona’s hotels, dining, and activities. Visitors can then save and build their trip based on length, and can even swap personas to explore further.

Upgrading the meeting planner experience.

Meeting planners are a major source of revenue for more DMOs, but they are often not given the same attention as the consume side when it comes to website features. For SMTT, we not only have meeting planners their own navigation and site theme, but added in features to help them more quickly gather information that is important to them.

Project created while employed at Noble Studios, Reno NV.