Tennessee is often viewed as a “drive-through” state and a place to stop on the way to a destination. The most popular vacations for families in the U.S. include going to theme parks and beaches. Because of that, Tennessee competes for family travelers with destinations like Disneyland and Florida. The family travel segment is worth more because data shows that families spend more on travel than non-family travelers, making them a significant driver of economic activity.

Online reviews impact 95% of travel decisions, but millions of them are purchased, fabricated or fake. With so many resources providing conflicting and subjective opinions on family-friendly destinations, parents are often unsure if they are making the right choices.

Laughter is considered a visual expression of joy. This led to our insight: As a parent, you want nothing more than to hear your kids laugh because it’s proof they are happy.

To eliminate the subjectivity of travel reviews, we created the Laugh Tracker — a first-of-its-kind wearable device that measures laughter and excitement to determine how much fun kids have in Tennessee.

We worked with a team of software engineers to develop the laugh-tracking wearable. Equipped with a microphone, GPS technology, and cloud computing, the device records audio samples in 10-second increments and sends them to a neural network that is home to a dataset of 214,000-plus audio files. AI software uses machine learning to determine if a sound is laughter. We concurrently captured heart-rate data to measure excitement. The data is then analyzed and presented through a planning tool for parents to use to help plan their trip.

Equipped with a microphone, GPS technology and cloud computing, the Laugh Tracker records audio samples in 10-second increments and sends them to a neural network that is home to a dataset of 214,000-plus audio files. AI software uses machine learning to determine if a sound is laughter. We concurrently captured heart-rate data to measure excitement. We visited 31 family-friendly attractions across the state of Tennessee to collect data from hundreds of kids of various ages.

We analyzed more than 2 million data points and recorded more than 1.6 million seconds of laughter. We developed a scale for rating laughter by age at each location. Using the GPS location data, we also were able to identify specific activities within the attractions that generated the most laughter. We created heat maps by overlaying the data to show where the most fun was had.

Equipped with a microphone, GPS technology and cloud computing, the Laugh Tracker records audio samples in 10-second increments and sends them to a neural network that is home to a dataset of 214,000-plus audio files. AI software uses machine learning to determine if a sound is laughter. We concurrently captured heart-rate data to measure excitement. We visited 31 family-friendly attractions across the state of Tennessee to collect data from hundreds of kids of various ages.

We analyzed more than 2 million data points and recorded more than 1.6 million seconds of laughter. We developed a scale for rating laughter by age at each location. Using the GPS location data, we also were able to identify specific activities within the attractions that generated the most laughter. We created heat maps by overlaying the data to show where the most fun was had.

We developed a custom planning tool for moms on our brand site to showcase the data. To make planning easier, users were able to filter the data by age range (because we understand that 2-year-olds and 8-year-olds are very different). We wanted to reach moms in the places they look for inspiration. Video, display, social and out-of-home assets were leveraged to drive moms to our planning tool. We leveraged Pinterest because we know moms use the platform throughout the entire trip-planning process. We were the first travel brand to tap into some features of the platform, like Tried It!, which are traditionally used for food and recipe content, to provide further utility.

Individual attractions across Tennessee leverage the Laugh Tracker data to enhance their offerings. So, not only did we show Tennessee is fun, we’re helping to make it even more fun in the future.

Using the power of laughter, the campaign exceeded all our goals by creating a connection with moms and inspiring them to choose Tennessee for their family vacation. The campaign drove over 5.9 million hotel and flight searches (354% above goal), increased hotel demand by 4.2% following the campaign, and generated a $142 to $1 return on ad spend ($42 above goal).

Based on the success of this campaign, we are continuing to leverage the Laugh Trackers to collect data at additional attractions across Tennessee. Individual attractions across Tennessee are also leveraging the Laugh Tracker data to enhance their offerings. So not only did we show that Tennessee is fun, we’re also helping to make it even more fun in the future.