When Eric Satre became the first-ever staff member of Destination: Woodbury, he stepped into an exciting and rare opportunity — building a destination marketing organization entirely from scratch. He partnered with Zartico to move beyond tracking visitation to decoding behaviors by collecting and interpreting visitor intelligence before any major marketing campaigns had launched.
Using three years of historical data through the Zartico platform, Destination: Woodbury was able to:
| “Some of the insights really surprised us. For instance, only 8% of our visitor devices were from more than 50 miles away. That’s an entirely different story than we expected, and it’s shaping our strategies moving forward.” - Eric Satre, Marketing Manager, Destination: Woodbury |
As Minnesota’s 7th largest city, Woodbury already had strong retail, sports, and quality-of-life infrastructure, but until recently, had never marketed itself to visitors. With the city council’s decision to enact a lodging tax and formally establish a DMO, the city was ready to invest in telling its story and driving strategic growth, but needed to understand its audience first.
"Visitors were already coming here - we just didn’t know who they were or why. Without that insight, we couldn’t prioritize or plan effectively.”
Woodbury, MN already had strong retail, sports, and quality-of-life infrastructure, but until recently, had never marketed itself to visitors.
From web development to campaign strategy, Woodbury prioritized integrating platforms and partners that would allow the team to operate insightfully and independently. As a city-run DMO, Eric also worked across departments to ensure that he could promote messaging that was distinctly visitor-focused, not city-focused. When you can use intelligence to see what visitors actually do in your destination, not what is assumed, the strategy becomes smarter and is designed for results.
“We wanted a look, feel, and approach that was completely different from the city website. Visitors are a different audience. This was our chance to do something uniquely ‘Woodbury.’”
Destination: Woodbury’s website promotes messaging that is distinctly focused on the visitor.
For a one-person team, Zartico has served as both a compass and a force multiplier — providing the structure, support, the visitor behavioral insights and strategic clarity needed to build a modern DMO from the ground up. As Eric works to align his efforts with the expectations of a city-run organization, Zartico delivers the visitor journey and data intelligence needed to instill confidence and accountability in every decision. From board presentations to budget justifications, the platform ensures there’s always a clear rationale behind each move.
As Destination: Woodbury enters its first-ever paid campaign phase, Zartico’s insights are laying the groundwork for targeting, messaging, and measurement, establishing a data-backed foundation for future performance evaluation and ongoing optimization. The platform doesn’t just provide intelligence; it builds confidence and community.
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