All Work

How a $1.2M DMO Outshined the $32M Giant Next Door

The challenge

Explore Oak Park & Beyond operates with an annual budget of just ~$1.2M—less than half that of many neighboring DMOs, and a fraction of Choose Chicago’s $32M+ budget. Yet Oak Park isn’t just competing with nearby destinations—it borders Chicago, the third-largest city in the U.S., and must stand out in one of the most crowded, high-spend tourism markets in the country.

While many Chicagoland DMOs could leverage massive budgets to drive their campaigns, Oak Park had to make every dollar work harder. The goal wasn’t just to get found—it was to get found efficiently.

Our insight

Invisibility isn’t always about lack of effort—it’s often a structural issue. Competing DMOs with bigger budgets were casting wide nets with paid media, but Oak Park had the chance to win with precision. The potential was already there—compelling stories, cultural depth, and local charm. By aligning that foundation with how people actually search, we unlocked new ways for visitors to discover what makes Oak Park unforgettable.

What we did

We ran a competitive edge audit focused on three key areas: keyword efficiency, traffic yield, and budget alignment. From there, we created a strategy that didn’t require scale—just sharper alignment with intent.

We developed a strategic playbook to identify high-value traffic opportunities, shape content around real search behavior, and invest only where it counted. No fluff—just a clear path to more impact with less waste.

This included:

  • Identifying and prioritizing high-intent keywords aligned to Oak Park’s strengths
  • Streamlining the website’s architecture for clarity and SEO performance
  • Focusing content development on topics that matched what interest-driven travelers were already searching for

Rather than relying on paid ads to buy visibility, we worked within the organization’s existing resources to maximize ROI on what was already working—and scaled it strategically.

Oak Park outperformed the average peer by 3X—and the least efficient regional DMO by more than 40X in terms of organic visibility per dollar allocated across the organization.

Why it worked

Instead of chasing what everyone else was doing, we focused on what mattered to real visitors. This strategy proved that outsized visibility doesn’t require outsized budgets—just sharper alignment between digital content, local credibility, and search behavior.