Oregon’s been through a lot during the pandemic, and the effects of COVID-19 are still felt statewide. “50% of tourism businesses saw revenue decline by 90% or more in April of 2020,” and Occupancy rates are still down 12% throughout the state (as of May 2021). (Source: Travel Oregon Impact report). The purpose of "Extraordinary is Ordinary" in 2022 was to propel Oregon toward statewide economic recovery by driving mass awareness for all that Oregon has to offer, including lesser-known destinations in need of more traffic. The placement of this campaign was important with more eyes than ever on the state due to the World Athletic Championships Oregon 22. We had an opportunity to show a broader audience what this place is really about. At a time when the world needs what Oregon has to offer.

In 2020, not many people were traveling to Oregon (or anywhere, really.) And if they were, they weren’t visiting anywhere off the beaten path. So in this campaign, we wanted people to go deeper than Oregon’s greatest hits. We wanted to show that every inch of this place, down to its most fundamental things, is extraordinary. That’s why we chose to focus our campaign on the three most basic elements that make up Oregon – soil, water, and rocks.

With this campaign, we set out to bring the diversity of Oregon to a diversity of travelers. In order to do so, we first needed to dig deeper into our target audience: Active Adventurers. With the help of a research partner – Mindswarms – we surveyed and conducted in-depth interviews with potential travelers from our key markets. We explored the nuances of where and why they travel, and how their identity informs the travel choices they make. By doing so, we discovered that while travelers may come from various different walks of life, the appeal of Oregon’s natural beauty was universal. This gave us the confidence to go deep into what makes this place great, in a memorable way.

We knew that a traditional medium could never show this place in a way that captured the beauty of Oregon, but we knew we could recreate the feeling of being here. So using a magical combination of stop motion, puppetry, found footage, and practical effects, we recreated one of Oregon's most interesting restaurants, a full-scale forest you can walk through, a model of the deepest lake in the U.S., and 23 other sets of real Oregon locations and landscapes.

The launch of "Extraordinary is Ordinary" earned an Oregon travelers arrival lift of 36% (Arrivalist). The campaign partnership with Priceline generated $2M in revenue from bookings, and the partnership with Sojern had $9.2MM in total estimated traveler spend. The linear TV campaign delivered at 331% with record viewership for the World Athletic Championship across all channels (18.7MM impressions within the first ten days and was the highest-watched WAC in over 15 years).