How an Insect Invasion Landed Visit Loudoun National Media Coverage

Months before their arrival, media outlets across the nation began reporting that a giant swarm of cicadas was about to emerge in the D.C. region. This particular event was garnering attention because it wasn’t just about a few extra insects flying around; this was about billions of large, red-eyed, noisy Brood X Cicadas coming to visit after 17 years.

While many people were fascinated by this phenomenon, the idea of large bugs arriving in Loudoun just in time for wedding season had some couples concerned if they would be hosting uninvited guests during their big day. After getting questions about the Brood X Cicadas from concerned couples, the Visit Loudoun team began to brainstorm - how can the tourism organization turn what some people may deem an unpleasant insect encounter into something fun?

Visit Loudoun developed a grassroots campaign that included unique cicada activations at various tourism attractions. Visitors had the opportunity to do everything from dine on cooked cicadas at a local restaurant to drink a BrewdX beer made with 10 ingredients that aged in a tank for 17 days. Other activations included cicada hunts with park specialists, an opportunity to sleep in cabins or zipline in the woods surrounded by the buzzy insects or purchase ceramic cicadas made by a local artist.

Through Visit Loudoun’s media efforts, this campaign reached more than 57 million people through tv, digital and print coverage and cost nothing to execute. CBS This Morning covered the cicada tacos and beer while The Washington Post’s story on cicada tourism, which included an interview with Visit Loudoun’s CEO, went on the wire and ran in publications across the globe. Other outlets included Fox5 DC, WJLA, The Washingtonian, Northern Virginia Magazine and more.

This campaign is an illustration of newsjacking, taking something trending in the media to garner attention for your destination or its attractions.

In addition to pitching traditional media, Visit Loudoun also built out a cicada landing page on its website, which received almost 10,000 pageviews. Average time on the page was just over two minutes, which suggests our audience was reading and engaging with the content. Visit Loudoun’s social media efforts around the campaign reached 18,383 with 12,537 engagements across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Loudoun Visitor Center even received a call from Alaska from someone looking to experience the BroodX arrival and participating partners noted an increase in traffic during the roughly eight-week event. Crème de la Crème, which featured the ceramic cicadas, completely sold out.

This effort is a powerful example of how a tourism organization can turn headlines into opportunities and a win for both the destination and its tourism partners. For something like this to be successful, we also had to have buy-in from our partners. With strong relationships already in place, we were able to establish a network of collaborators willing to jump, be creative and support this idea.

It is important to always stay alert to news coverage - not just in your local region – but also to what’s trending nationally. Who knows when a bug invasion or something else can positively put your destination in the national spotlight.