Today we want to showcase one of our amazing clients… Louisa County Chamber of Commerce! We’ll give you a peek behind the scenes to show we worked with the Chamber to create their brand new campaign, Unplug and Play.
The Goal:
Seated on the shores of Lake Anna, Louisa County was looking to boost its tourism numbers in 2021. To reach this goal, the Louisa County Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Virginia Tourism Corporation, set the following goals:
- Increase unique pageviews for www.LouisaChamber.org
- Increase new users/visitors to www.LouisaChamber.org
- Secure earned media placements
The Challenge:
Due to COVID-19, people weren’t traveling, and most tourist-based businesses were struggling to keep their doors open. In addition, many local businesses not located on Lake Anna were struggling to get visitors off the lake and come through their doors, even in a regular year. They needed a creative and inventive solution.
The Solution:
PPR Strategies and the Louisa County Chamber of Commerce wanted to emphasize amenities and other regional assets beyond the lake. The Chamber had minimal funding and so getting business sponsorship was a key part of their strategy.
The Strategy: Developing the Campaign
The Louisa County Chamber of Commerce developed an awareness campaign, titled Unplug and Play in Louisa County, and partnered with PPR Strategies to plan the campaign. We wanted to inform visitors about amenities and attractions on – and off – the lake to face these challenges. To ensure we were reaching the correct audiences, PPR first met with Louisa County business owners and Chamber members to pitch target personas. After those were approved, PPR and the group discussed sponsorship details, advertising plans, deal packs visitors register for, and other collateral.
As part of the campaign, PPR Strategies was tasked with developing five itinerary-style blogs to promote businesses and attractions. The goal of these was to provide tourists with printable themed outlines of activities they could do and places they could visit in Louisa County. In total, these itineraries highlight over 40 businesses, activities, sites and organizations. The attractions cover restaurants, craft beverage destinations, camping, rentals, hotels, tours, markets and more.
The Strategy: Promoting the Campaign
Once the Chamber established a budget and acquired business partners, PPR Strategies planned a campaign strategy comprised of the following:
- 5 Itineraries
- Google Ads
- Boosted Facebook Posts
- Digital Ads on Virginia.org
- Sponsored Email Content
- Print Ads
- Radio Ads
- Standard Social Media Posts
- Earned Media
Through the sponsorship program we developed, business partners selected how and when they were mentioned in the campaign advertisements. All partners were included on www.LoveLouisa.org, in a tri-fold handed out to visitors, in itineraries, and in press releases.
The campaign just kicked off on April 15! We’ll be tracking their results through Google Analytics, visitor registration and earned media pitching results.
We hope this inspires tourism organizations seeking to bring more awareness to their communities this summer and beyond! Through the power of collaboration, itineraries, creative and strategic marketing, you can tell impactful stories about all the amazing things your community has to offer!
Need help strategizing your next campaign? Hit reply to set up a free 15-minute consultation.
‘Til next time,
Sandy
