Discover Wauwatosa
Case Study
Experience Design
How we made NEW possible
With their goal of establishing Wauwatosa as a world-class destination for the arts, NEWaukee created an experience that would bind previous initiatives while making a public splash and bring guests from around the country to the city.
How it connected
Since 2022, NEWaukee has planned and hosted an annual festival called ART 64, a two-day bracket-style tournament in The Village of Wauwatosa for a $20,000 grand prize. The inaugural event saw over 8,000 attendees across the two-day festival.
Establishing Wauwatosa as a world-class destination for the arts.
Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. It is named after the Potawatomi Chief Wauwataesie and the Potawatomi word for firefly.
Discover Wauwatosa is the city’s tourism initiative, helping to bring guests into the area and ensuring they have a fun and memorable experience during their stay.
Key Insights
NEWaukee hosted a series of planning meetings with both City of Wauwatosa staff, including its Deputy City Administrator and Tourism Specialist, to uncover the following insights:
The proposed program should bring people from greater than 30 miles outside of the city into the city with the intention to book a stay at one of the Wauwatosa area hotels.
The proposed program should drive foot traffic and sales at local Wauwatosa small businesses. NEWaukee developed a strong relationship with The Village of Wauwatosa BID (Business Improvement District) and one-on-one relationships with many business owners.
Any experience involving artists should include voices of artists/artist organizations on the planning team. To do this, NEWaukee included leaders from several area arts organizations and local businesses on planning committees.
In order to achieve brand awareness as a destination for the arts and bring in attendees from 30+ miles outside of Wauwatosa, the experience’s marketing campaign needed to be robust and involve strong media partnerships.
Engagement Challenge
Discover Wauwatosa is establishing itself as a world-class destination for the arts. The city’s previous art activations included the Magic Murals, a seven-part mural art installation that can be seen along the North Avenue corridor in the North Mural Arts District, also known as “NoMAD.”
Discover Wauwatosa was looking for an experience that would build upon these previous initiatives while making a public splash and bringing guests from around the country to the city.
Engagement Solution
Since 2022, NEWaukee has planned and hosted an annual festival called ART 64, a two-day bracket-style tournament in The Village of Wauwatosa for a $20,000 grand prize.
Artists are paired head-to-head and given a limited amount of time to create a work of art on a predetermined theme. The audience votes for their favorite artists to advance and all paintings created are placed on sale after the rounds end.
The event brings in diverse, nationwide artists and attendees and highlights local Wauwatosa businesses.
THE
RESULTS
8,000+
attendees over
2 days
75K
total annual website page visits
64
participating artists
10+
earned media coverage from regional outlets
41
US states represented in attendance
5,320
emails collected for retargeting
6M
campaign impressions
+600
social media follower growth in 1st year
Advertising & Promotion
