Visit Big Bear

Big Bear needed a brand platform that could connect seasonal campaigns, lodging, events, and outdoor experiences. The challenge was balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders while giving visitors a consistent reason to choose the destination. Each season needed fresh creative that contributed to a recognizable brand over time.

“Made in Big Bear” shifted the focus from the activities visitors could do to the memories, traditions, and milestones they could create. The platform gave different experiences a shared emotional foundation. A ski weekend, summer on the lake, or family getaway could each tell a distinct story while reinforcing the same brand idea.

I directed the platform across seasonal campaigns and ongoing content, defining what stayed consistent and what could change by audience, season, and placement. The production scope included more than 200 creative concepts across six content pillars, resulting in approximately 1,900 assets. A shared production log connected each concept to its executions across display, social, Performance Max, animation, and video. Performance findings shaped subsequent creative. Full-bleed imagery replaced a legacy templated layout, video expanded into vertical and square formats, and activity and event content took a larger role where it performed better. I also directed the content team’s on-location capture to keep the library fresh across seasons.

Performance data kept pointing at the same gap. Lifestyle and creator style content was outperforming produced landscape work, and Big Bear did not have a reliable way to get it. Sourcing creators was slow, inconsistent, and expensive for the volume paid social actually needs. So we built the capability instead of buying it. I stood up an internal content creator team and took them to Big Bear for a two day shoot, capturing UGC style video built for 9:16 from the start rather than cropped down from something else. Early results are promising. The UGC set is pulling roughly 70% higher click through rate and about half the cost per click of the non UGC creative, and it now carries the majority of social spend. The honest caveat is that this is a young test. Across the current window the full creative set has produced too few purchases to read conversion reliably, and most of the UGC library has barely spent yet. The click quality signal is real. The revenue answer is not in. What it has already changed is the production model. Big Bear no longer waits on creator sourcing to put social native content in market.

“Made in Big Bear” provided a consistent foundation for seasonal marketing while supporting ongoing creative testing and production. Reported results included a 12-percentage-point increase in ad awareness, a 131% increase in booking-link clicks, and a 23% increase in organic search volume. Those findings informed the next phase of work: strengthening the connection between destination inspiration and booking intent.