As a friendly, progressive city that’s home to two universities, Lexington, Kentucky defies the stereotypes often associated with the state. VisitLEX, the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, seeks to shift perceptions and raise awareness of this often overlooked but unexpectedly cool destination.
In 2023, Lexington was voted the #3 Friendliest Place in America by Condé Nast. But we wanted to show the world that Lexington is, in fact, the #1 FRIENDLIEST PLACE ON EARTH.
Recent UFO revelations and advances in deep space imaging have fueled the belief that we are not alone in the universe. So VisitLEX assembled a team of local scientists and scholars to devise the first-ever travel advertisement targeting extraterrestrial intelligence.
Why Lexington? Look no further than our beautiful horses, stellar bourbon, and famously friendly residents to see that Lexington, Kentucky is the best place on Earth for first contact. Plus, our wide-open Bluegrass landscape is perfect for landing a spaceship.
Experts in astrobiology, linguistics, computer engineering, philosophy, and science fiction designed the message. It includes a bitmap key to establish communication, four grayscale images representing life in Lexington, and an audio recording from a local blues musician.
Using a powerful infrared laser, VisitLEX beamed its ad toward the TRAPPIST-1 system 40 light years away. The message was transmitted with FAA approval from the Kentucky Horse Park in October of 2023. While it may take over 80 years to receive any interstellar RSVPs, earthly travelers can explore The Extraterrestrial’s Guide to Lexington on VisitLEX.com and even leave their own welcome messages, which will be preserved in a time capsule until aliens arrive in the not-too-distant future.
3 Billion
Earned Impressions
1,100
Earned Placements
$28MM
in Earned Media
88%
Positive Sentiment
This campaign generated three billion earned impressions and an estimated advertising value of $28MM. The stunt earned more than 1,100 placements, including front page of the USA Today Weekend newspaper, and graced outlets in Australia, the UK, Italy, Portugal, and beyond.
Not only was the story covered around the world, it was covered with extraordinary accuracy. Nearly every placement mentioned Lexington in the lead, before explaining why the destination’s horses, bourbon, and Bluegrass landscape make it the “best place on Earth” and the ideal place for first contact.
This campaign also earned major recognition for the team of local scientists and scholars who helped make the idea possible. Their names and quotes were featured in publications like the Washington Post, Popular Science, Forbes and Fast Company.
In fact, Dr. Robert Lodder, the lead scientist on the campaign, is currently working on a scientific publication about the interstellar laser transmission, which has already generated interest from scientists working on the John Hopkins New Horizons Project, NASA’s mission to Pluto.
The campaign far surpassed its goal of earning awareness for Lexington, Kentucky. It drove conversation about Lexington and challenged the engrained misperceptions around the state. Remarkably, sentiment around the campaign was 88% positive, a 61% increase over the average conversation around “Kentucky.”
While it will take 80 years to measure interstellar ROI, this campaign helped Lexington, Kentucky continue its momentum as one of the most talked about–and by far the friendliest–destinations among humans here on planet Earth.
