Magic Christmas in Lights
Bellingrath Gardens & Home
How a full-funnel campaign reversed a three-season attendance decline and delivered the first 100,000-visitor season in Magic Christmas in Lights history.
Company
Bellingrath Gardens & Home
Year
2024
Integrated Marketing
- Role
- Marketing & PR Manager
- Scope
- Two end-to-end event cycles: strategy, media, creative, PR, reporting
- Budget
- $90K–$106K paid + $71K negotiated media trade
- Channels
- Search · Meta · CTV/OTT · Broadcast · OOH · Email · PR
Five Seasons, One Strand
The story in a single string of lights
Magic Christmas in Lights attendance by season. Three dimming years before my tenure; two record-breaking seasons during it. Source: Bellingrath internal attendance records.
Swipe the chart sideways to see all five seasons →
The Situation
The Gulf Coast's biggest holiday tradition was quietly fading
Magic Christmas in Lights is Bellingrath's signature event and its single largest revenue driver — eight weeks, three million lights, and the majority of the nonprofit's annual visitation. When I took ownership of marketing in January 2023, attendance had slid 14% over three consecutive seasons.
A perishable window
Roughly 38 selling nights, weather-exposed, with zero carryover. Every dark night is revenue lost forever.
Front-loaded demand
Early weeks averaged ~2,000 visitors a night vs. 4,000 at peak — capacity strain in late December, empty paths in early December.
Local audience fatigue
A 28-year-old tradition risks “we already went last year.” The show had to win new audiences without alienating loyalists.
A lean budget
$90K in year one against competitors with far larger holiday spends — demanding ruthless channel efficiency.
The Strategy
Four moves, one operating principle: let visitor data lead
Two audiences, two messages
Survey data (n=547) showed 49% of guests discover the show through word of mouth — and revealed two distinct buyers. First-timers respond to curiosity and novelty; repeat visitors to family tradition. The campaign ran two creative tracks instead of one, so paid media's real job became manufacturing the word of mouth that sells the rest.
Full-funnel, not a seasonal ad blast
Every channel got a specific job — search captured high-intent demand, CTV and broadcast built reach, Meta carried audience-specific creative and retargeting, email drove advance purchase, PR fueled trust.
Sell the soft weeks, not just tickets
Peak nights sold themselves. Media weight, email cadence, and promotion were skewed toward the slow early-season weeks — turning the campaign into a yield-management tool, not just an awareness engine.
Stretch the budget with trade & earned
A negotiated trade program across 31 broadcast, radio, and print partners added $70,995 of in-kind media — with partner redemption nearly double the 2018 program (36% vs. 20%).
The Results
Two seasons. Two records. Independently verified.
Measured by independent research firm Alexander Babbage (n=693, ±3.7%). First-time visitors scored even higher — NPS 74 — and 86% said they were likely to return. 67% said the show exceeded expectations.
Third-party validation — not self-reported.
Ranked #9 Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights in America — the only show in the Southeast on the list
Featured in "32 Best Places to See Christmas Lights in the U.S."
Named a "Garden of the World Worth Traveling For" — the only U.S. garden recognized
Why It Worked
The campaign was engineered, not hoped for
✦It started with the visitor, not the channel
Survey data dictated two creative tracks — novelty for first-timers, tradition for loyalists — and the third-party study proved both worked: 40% new visitors alongside 60% returning.
✦Word of mouth was treated as a channel
With half of discovery happening through recommendations, every tactic was built to give people something to talk about. An NPS of 71 turned 80% of attendees into active promoters.
✦Efficiency was a strategy, not a constraint
Trade partnerships added 67% more media value on top of cash budget; high-intent search converted at a 62% CTR. That's how a ~$100K budget produced $1.7M seasons.
✦It compounded
Season one rebuilt momentum and the audience base. Season two converted that momentum into a record that had stood for 29 years.
- Role
- Marketing & PR Manager
- Scope
- Two end-to-end event cycles: strategy, media, creative, PR, reporting
- Budget
- $90K–$106K paid + $71K negotiated media trade
- Channels
- Search · Meta · CTV/OTT · Broadcast · OOH · Email · PR
Five Seasons, One Strand
The story in a single string of lights
Magic Christmas in Lights attendance by season. Three dimming years before my tenure; two record-breaking seasons during it. Source: Bellingrath internal attendance records.
Swipe the chart sideways to see all five seasons →
The Situation
The Gulf Coast's biggest holiday tradition was quietly fading
Magic Christmas in Lights is Bellingrath's signature event and its single largest revenue driver — eight weeks, three million lights, and the majority of the nonprofit's annual visitation. When I took ownership of marketing in January 2023, attendance had slid 14% over three consecutive seasons.
A perishable window
Roughly 38 selling nights, weather-exposed, with zero carryover. Every dark night is revenue lost forever.
Front-loaded demand
Early weeks averaged ~2,000 visitors a night vs. 4,000 at peak — capacity strain in late December, empty paths in early December.
Local audience fatigue
A 28-year-old tradition risks “we already went last year.” The show had to win new audiences without alienating loyalists.
A lean budget
$90K in year one against competitors with far larger holiday spends — demanding ruthless channel efficiency.
The Strategy
Four moves, one operating principle: let visitor data lead
Two audiences, two messages
Survey data (n=547) showed 49% of guests discover the show through word of mouth — and revealed two distinct buyers. First-timers respond to curiosity and novelty; repeat visitors to family tradition. The campaign ran two creative tracks instead of one, so paid media's real job became manufacturing the word of mouth that sells the rest.
Full-funnel, not a seasonal ad blast
Every channel got a specific job — search captured high-intent demand, CTV and broadcast built reach, Meta carried audience-specific creative and retargeting, email drove advance purchase, PR fueled trust.
Sell the soft weeks, not just tickets
Peak nights sold themselves. Media weight, email cadence, and promotion were skewed toward the slow early-season weeks — turning the campaign into a yield-management tool, not just an awareness engine.
Stretch the budget with trade & earned
A negotiated trade program across 31 broadcast, radio, and print partners added $70,995 of in-kind media — with partner redemption nearly double the 2018 program (36% vs. 20%).
The Results
Two seasons. Two records. Independently verified.
Measured by independent research firm Alexander Babbage (n=693, ±3.7%). First-time visitors scored even higher — NPS 74 — and 86% said they were likely to return. 67% said the show exceeded expectations.
Third-party validation — not self-reported.
Ranked #9 Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights in America — the only show in the Southeast on the list
Featured in "32 Best Places to See Christmas Lights in the U.S."
Named a "Garden of the World Worth Traveling For" — the only U.S. garden recognized
Why It Worked
The campaign was engineered, not hoped for
✦It started with the visitor, not the channel
Survey data dictated two creative tracks — novelty for first-timers, tradition for loyalists — and the third-party study proved both worked: 40% new visitors alongside 60% returning.
✦Word of mouth was treated as a channel
With half of discovery happening through recommendations, every tactic was built to give people something to talk about. An NPS of 71 turned 80% of attendees into active promoters.
✦Efficiency was a strategy, not a constraint
Trade partnerships added 67% more media value on top of cash budget; high-intent search converted at a 62% CTR. That's how a ~$100K budget produced $1.7M seasons.
✦It compounded
Season one rebuilt momentum and the audience base. Season two converted that momentum into a record that had stood for 29 years.
- Role
- Marketing & PR Manager
- Scope
- Two end-to-end event cycles: strategy, media, creative, PR, reporting
- Budget
- $90K–$106K paid + $71K negotiated media trade
- Channels
- Search · Meta · CTV/OTT · Broadcast · OOH · Email · PR
Five Seasons, One Strand
The story in a single string of lights
Magic Christmas in Lights attendance by season. Three dimming years before my tenure; two record-breaking seasons during it. Source: Bellingrath internal attendance records.
The Situation
The Gulf Coast's biggest holiday tradition was quietly fading
Magic Christmas in Lights is Bellingrath's signature event and its single largest revenue driver — eight weeks, three million lights, and the majority of the nonprofit's annual visitation. When I took ownership of marketing in January 2023, attendance had slid 14% over three consecutive seasons.
A perishable window
Roughly 38 selling nights, weather-exposed, with zero carryover. Every dark night is revenue lost forever.
Front-loaded demand
Early weeks averaged ~2,000 visitors a night vs. 4,000 at peak — capacity strain in late December, empty paths in early December.
Local audience fatigue
A 28-year-old tradition risks “we already went last year.” The show had to win new audiences without alienating loyalists.
A lean budget
$90K in year one against competitors with far larger holiday spends — demanding ruthless channel efficiency.
The Strategy
Four moves, one operating principle: let visitor data lead
Two audiences, two messages
Survey data (n=547) showed 49% of guests discover the show through word of mouth — and revealed two distinct buyers. First-timers respond to curiosity and novelty; repeat visitors to family tradition. The campaign ran two creative tracks instead of one, so paid media's real job became manufacturing the word of mouth that sells the rest.
Full-funnel, not a seasonal ad blast
Every channel got a specific job — search captured high-intent demand, CTV and broadcast built reach, Meta carried audience-specific creative and retargeting, email drove advance purchase, PR fueled trust.
Sell the soft weeks, not just tickets
Peak nights sold themselves. Media weight, email cadence, and promotion were skewed toward the slow early-season weeks — turning the campaign into a yield-management tool, not just an awareness engine.
Stretch the budget with trade & earned
A negotiated trade program across 31 broadcast, radio, and print partners added $70,995 of in-kind media — with partner redemption nearly double the 2018 program (36% vs. 20%).
| Channel | Vehicle | Job in the funnel |
|---|---|---|
| Paid search | Google Ads | Capture high-intent queries — “christmas lights mobile al,” “things to do in mobile” |
| Paid social | Meta (FB + IG) | Awareness, audience-specific creative, retargeting |
| Streaming | CTV/OTT | Broad-reach visual storytelling across the Gulf Coast DMA |
| Broadcast + OOH | Local TV, billboards, print | Mass awareness, community credibility, seasonal urgency |
| Segmented Mailchimp | Re-engagement, advance purchase, member communications | |
| Earned & trade | PR, preview nights, 31 trade partners | Trust, third-party validation, word-of-mouth fuel |
The Results
Two seasons. Two records. Independently verified.
Measured by independent research firm Alexander Babbage (n=693, ±3.7%). First-time visitors scored even higher — NPS 74 — and 86% said they were likely to return. 67% said the show exceeded expectations.
Third-party validation — not self-reported.
Ranked #9 Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights in America — the only show in the Southeast on the list
Featured in "32 Best Places to See Christmas Lights in the U.S."
Named a "Garden of the World Worth Traveling For" — the only U.S. garden recognized
Why It Worked
The campaign was engineered, not hoped for
✦It started with the visitor, not the channel
Survey data dictated two creative tracks — novelty for first-timers, tradition for loyalists — and the third-party study proved both worked: 40% new visitors alongside 60% returning.
✦Word of mouth was treated as a channel
With half of discovery happening through recommendations, every tactic was built to give people something to talk about. An NPS of 71 turned 80% of attendees into active promoters.
✦Efficiency was a strategy, not a constraint
Trade partnerships added 67% more media value on top of cash budget; high-intent search converted at a 62% CTR. That's how a ~$100K budget produced $1.7M seasons.
✦It compounded
Season one rebuilt momentum and the audience base. Season two converted that momentum into a record that had stood for 29 years.
