Destination Mansfield
Some projects give us the opportunity to show off what our clients do. Our work with Destination Mansfield gives us the opportunity to show off the place we call home. Over the years, we’ve partnered with their team on photography, video, and web projects that showcase the people, places, attractions, and experiences that make Mansfield and Richland County worth a visit.
Most recently, we had the opportunity to design and develop Destination Mansfield’s new website. For an organization built around attracting visitors to the area, the website has to do more than provide information. It has to make people want to experience it for themselves. We designed the site to put Mansfield and Richland County front and center, using strong visuals, engaging video, and an easy-to-navigate layout that helps visitors discover what there is to see and do.
The new website makes it easier for visitors to turn inspiration into an actual trip with GuideGeek, an AI-powered chatbot designed specifically for destination and travel planning. But we didn’t want the experience to feel like dropping a generic chatbot onto the website. We worked to make the integration feel like a natural extension of Destination Mansfield, developing a character and personality for the chatbot and customizing the experience to reflect the destination, its voice, and the kinds of questions visitors are likely to ask.
Visitors can have a conversation about things to do, places to eat, accommodations, local attractions, upcoming events, and more, receiving recommendations based on what they’re looking for. Whether someone is planning a weekend getaway, searching for family-friendly activities, or deciding where to stay, GuideGeek gives them a more personal and interactive way to explore Mansfield and Richland County.
The website also integrates with Yodel to bring local events directly into the Destination Mansfield experience. Rather than simply linking visitors to an outside event calendar, we integrated Yodel through its API so event information is presented as native content within the Destination Mansfield website.
That approach creates benefits beyond a better visitor experience. Individual event content becomes part of Destination Mansfield’s website, giving search engines and AI-powered discovery tools more locally relevant content to crawl, understand, and associate with the site. Instead of sending that search and discovery value to a third-party calendar, the integration helps Destination Mansfield capture the SEO and GEO value of the event content while still using Yodel to manage and maintain the underlying event information.
Professional photography has also been an important part of our work together. Our team has traveled throughout the area capturing local attractions, events, restaurants, outdoor recreation, and other experiences. Instead of relying on stock photography or generic imagery, Destination Mansfield has a growing library of authentic photos that actually represent the community they are promoting.
Video allows us to bring even more of that experience to life. From the energy of an event to the atmosphere of a local attraction, movement and sound give potential visitors a glimpse of what they can expect when they get here.
By bringing web, technology, photography, and video together, we’ve helped Destination Mansfield build a strong digital presence rooted in the place they know best. And for our team, getting to help tell the story of our own community makes the work that much more meaningful.
