Travel Oregon Turns the Pacific Northwest Into an Anime Dreamscape
Travel Oregon's "Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated" is a 2019 animated tourism campaign created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland that uses Japanese anime-inspired visuals to portray the emotional experience of exploring Oregon's landscapes, targeting adventure-oriented travelers across the United States.
The campaign launched in April 2019 as a direct sequel to the original "Only Slightly Exaggerated" film released in spring 2018, per the Clapboard Ad Archive. Where most destination-marketing work reaches for the photogenic and the literal, Travel Oregon and Wieden + Kennedy chose animation as the central creative vehicle, arguing that hand-drawn fantasy could communicate the feeling of the state more honestly than any lens. The sequel carried that premise further, building on an already-established visual world rather than rebuilding from scratch.
In the United States, the campaign ran across primary urban markets including Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco, with secondary reach extending to Eugene, Bend, Tri-Cities, and Boise, according to industry.traveloregon.com. The spring flight was scheduled to run from March 19 through May 12, 2019, with new animated creative planned to debut in mid-March, also per Industry Traveloregon. The campaign carried a production and media budget of $2.3 million for the spring 2019 execution, as documented by industry.traveloregon.com. Its primary audience was defined internally as "The Active Adventurer" — a traveler segment drawn to outdoor experiences and emotionally resonant storytelling rather than transactional itinerary advertising. Clapboard rates this campaign 84/100, reflecting its strong creative ambition, strategic clarity, and cultural distinctiveness within the travel and leisure category.
Travel Oregon identified a specific consumer archetype to anchor the campaign's strategy. The target segment, designated "The Active Adventurer" by Travel Oregon according to industry.traveloregon.com, sought experiences defined by immersion and emotional intensity rather than comfort or convenience. Reaching this audience through conventional travel photography — the dominant mode of competitors including Visit California and Visit Washington State — risked invisibility in a crowded category.
The strategic insight was precise: animation could accomplish something no travel film can. It could render the feeling of standing in an Oregon forest or riding the North Umpqua Trail without the flattening effect of a camera. Wieden + Kennedy Portland, the agency behind Travel Oregon's campaigns since the "We Like It Here, You Might Too" work in 2016, according to traveloregon.com, built the sequel on that premise. Because the visual language of the "Only Slightly Exaggerated" world was already established in 2018, the 2019 execution could move faster and push harder on story and character, freeing the creative team from foundational decisions.
The competitive environment in 2019 was intensifying. In the United States, destination-marketing organizations competed against international options including Iceland and New Zealand — destinations that had themselves built strong narrative identities, according to skift.com. Travel Oregon's animation strategy functioned as both a differentiator and a cultural signal, aligning the brand with audiences who consumed Japanese animation and valued craft. According to e-unwto.org, global international tourist arrivals reached between 1.46 and 1.50 billion in 2019, rising approximately four percent year over year, underscoring the scale of demand that US destination marketers were competing to capture.
The creative execution of "Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated" rests on a production partnership that brought together three distinct creative forces. Wieden + Kennedy Portland led creative direction, with animation produced by Psyop and Sun Creature Studios, and an original score composed by Jim Dooley, as reported by thedrum.com and musebyclios.com.
Jim Dooley is an Emmy-winning composer, a credential first established in the 2018 original campaign, per Wk, and his score returned in the sequel to provide sonic continuity across both films. Sun Creature Studio, a Copenhagen-based animation house, supplied the hand-drawn anime aesthetic that became the campaign's most recognisable visual signature. Psyop, a New York production company with deep roots in commercial animation, contributed production expertise that bridged the demands of broadcast delivery and the stylistic ambitions of the anime form.
Ansel Wallenfang, a creative at Wieden + Kennedy, stated that the campaign's goal was "to visualize the emotional experience of visiting Oregon" and that animation allowed the team to "capture experiences that go beyond traditional travel films," as quoted by Ad Age. Nick Stokes, Art Director at Wieden + Kennedy, noted that because the visual foundation had been established in 2018, the 2019 team had "more time to focus on fun story and character elements," as reported by shots.net. That freedom is legible in the finished film: characters and environments carry personality rather than simply serving as vehicles for scenic showcase. The result is a piece of animation that functions as entertainment first and advertising second — a distinction that matters considerably in a media environment where audiences in the United States exercise near-total control over what they choose to watch.
No verified third-party performance data for "Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated" — such as independently audited view counts, conversion metrics, or incremental visitor attribution — is publicly available at this time. What the public record does document is the campaign's reception within the advertising and travel industries, which speaks to its structural effectiveness.
Kyle O'Brien of The Drum described the campaign as a continuation of Travel Oregon's "magical animated campaign," explicitly framing it as a cultural sequel to a viral phenomenon rather than a routine seasonal refresh, as reported by thedrum.com. Ad Age framed the film as an "out-of-this-world anime" advertisement, a characterisation that positions the work outside the conventional travel-marketing frame and within popular culture, as reported by Ad Age. That crossover appeal — from travel advertising into general creative conversation — is among the most difficult outcomes for a destination-marketing organisation to manufacture, and the campaign achieved it across two consecutive years.
The structural effectiveness of the campaign rests on several compounding factors. The established visual world reduced production friction while increasing creative depth, as Wieden + Kennedy's own team acknowledged. The defined audience segment — "The Active Adventurer" — gave media planning precision that broad awareness campaigns rarely achieve. And the use of animation by Psyop and Sun Creature Studios, scored by Jim Dooley, produced a finished asset with enough intrinsic entertainment value to circulate beyond paid placement. In the United States, where travel and leisure advertising competes for attention against every other category simultaneously, that self-sustaining quality represents a measurable structural advantage.
"Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated" is a spring 2019 animated tourism campaign by Travel Oregon and Wieden + Kennedy Portland. It uses Japanese anime-style animation to portray Oregon's landscapes emotionally rather than literally, targeting adventure-oriented travelers across the United States. It is a direct sequel to the original 2018 "Only Slightly Exaggerated" campaign.
Wieden + Kennedy Portland created the campaign. Animation was produced by Psyop and Sun Creature Studios, with music composed by Emmy-winning composer Jim Dooley. Nick Stokes served as Art Director and Ansel Wallenfang contributed as a creative, both at Wieden + Kennedy, according to shots.net and Ad Age.
Travel Oregon allocated a budget of $2.3 million for the spring 2019 execution of "Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated," according to industry.traveloregon.com. The campaign ran from March 19 through May 12, 2019, targeting primary markets including Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco in the United States.
Travel Oregon defined the primary audience as "The Active Adventurer," according to industry.traveloregon.com. This segment sought emotionally immersive outdoor experiences. Primary US markets were Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco, with secondary reach into Eugene, Bend, Tri-Cities, and Boise, making it a regionally focused western United States campaign.
The 2019 sequel built on an already-established anime visual world rather than creating one from scratch. Art Director Nick Stokes noted the team had more time to focus on story and character elements as a result, per shots.net. The campaign retained the same production partners — Psyop, Sun Creature Studios, and composer Jim Dooley.
Travel Oregon's "Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated" received a Clapboard Score of 84 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong creative ambition, precise audience targeting, and cultural distinctiveness within the United States travel and leisure category, as evaluated by the Clapboard editorial team.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
.jpg&w=256&q=75)
