Missouri Division of Tourism Goes Mobile

Online, March 22, 2012 (Newswire.com) - SteadyRain, a full-service digital agency located in St. Louis, Missouri, continues its partnership with the Missouri Division of Tourism, launching the mobile counterpart to the Division's official site, VisitMO.com.

In the summer of 2011, the Division, its agency of record, Hoffman | Lewis, and SteadyRain worked with McDonald's on the national Road Trip Rewards campaign. With printed advertisements on McDonald's restaurant collateral, such as drink cups and tray liners, the campaign paired in-store marketing elements with a mobile-optimized promotional website. The promotion urged McDonald's customers to save their Road Trip Rewards marked receipts and visit the mobile site to gain access to special offers with participating tourist attractions throughout the state.

After the overwhelming success with this mobile marketing initiative and the significant increase in mobile visits to VisitMO.com, the natural next step was to provide new and existing website visitors a mobile-optimized experience that provided the same benefits they get from VisitMO.com in the palm of their hands as on their home computers.

"Cell phones and mobile devices are becoming a dominant way for people to quickly and easily access information while traveling to and within Missouri," says Katie Steele Danner, director of the Missouri Division of Tourism. "Our efforts to produce this mobile site reflect that trend, and we're confident people seeking travel information about Missouri will find the mobile VisitMO site a useful tool for planning trips and selecting events and destinations to visit."

The mobile website, launched on March 20, has a similar user interface to the VisitMO.com site and focuses on four core features, which include Things To Do, What's Nearby, Upcoming Events, and Places To Stay.

One important feature for the mobile site is the enhanced search functionality. Because it is for the on-the-go visitor, the user will decide how to narrow the search based on the location of an event, for example. This will be accomplished by selecting the destination's region or city, zip code, or by utilizing the mobile device's location to define their search.

"We've got an unbelievable list of mobile projects in the pipeline for 2012, but we are proud to make the m-dot site for VisitMO.com the first launch of the new year," said Thompson Knox, Executive Vice President at SteadyRain. "Our team has worked hard to provide a visual design that serves the tourists heading into or moving about our beautiful state who are accessing from a smart phone. There are lots of things to see in Missouri and not every traveler pre-plans their weekend road trips and staycation adventures-this mobile site gives them a tool to use when they are already on the open road."

SteadyRain recently worked with the Division and Hoffman | Lewis in the website redevelopment and design of the Division's official website, VisitMO.com. In the inaugural year of the new site, this development partnership was honored with three national award wins for its web development work on the tourism project.