How do you attract tourists to your area and leave them wanting more? A strong marketing campaign will do the trick.
“From pitch to post-campaign reporting, the team at LONDONmiddlebury delivered a campaign that far exceeded our expectations. They are creative, polished and provided guidance and expertise that helped “48 Hours in Addison County” drive interest and tourism to our part of Vermont. LONDONmiddlebury provides all the benefits of a large big-city agency combined with the care and attention only a boutique agency can provide. Hats off to Ashley, Matt and the entire team. Great job!"
— Phil Summers, Addison County Chamber of Commerce
Five Addison County organizations— the Addison County Economic Development Corporation, Addison County Chamber of Commerce, the Better Middlebury Partnership, the Vergennes Partnership, and Bristol Core— came together to form the “Addison County Regional Marketing Partnership.” The group’s purpose was to encourage a wide diversity of regional tourists within a half-day drive to visit Addison County and explore all the amazing experiences it has to offer.
The partnership released a public RFP and invited LONDONmiddlebury to submit a proposal to create a marketing campaign to drive traffic to local businesses and welcome new communities to Addison County. The group selected our team to take on their project, so we got to work creating a marketing campaign to meet the project goals.
For each itinerary, we conducted extensive research, gathered photos and videos, and wrote engaging copy to guide tourists through the ultimate two-day trip to Addison County. The guides include links to learn more about local businesses and maps that share where to find each location.
Our next step was distribution. To get these beautiful guides in front of the right audiences, we utilized several channels: social media, digital advertising, influencer marketing, word-of-mouth promotion, press releases, and sending traffic to the Chamber’s website.
Digital advertising is a great way to get in front of new, targeted audiences. We designed and tailored digital ads on Instagram and Facebook to pique the interest of regional tourists from Boston, Montreal, New York City, and beyond. The purpose of this initiative was to create brand awareness to build trust and hit as many touch points as possible to connect with consumers.
We wrote and distributed two press releases on behalf of the partnership. The first described the collaboration between the five organizations and LONDONmiddlebury’s initiative to reach potential tourists. This generated conversations in the community and spotlighted the effort the organizations were making to encourage visitors to the area and support county businesses.
Each piece of content was designed to direct traffic to the Chamber’s website. For this campaign, the main point of conversion was a click to an itinerary and map on the website. By creating compelling calls-to-action through digital ads, influencer marketing, and other channels, we simplified the conversion process and gave readers a direct place to go once they see the first piece of inspiring content.
Throughout the campaign, we conducted extensive and ongoing measurement and analysis of metrics and impact. At the end, we distributed a survey to provide tangible results when grant reporting. This gave the five organizations and their stakeholders confidence and insight into the power of the campaign.
The itineraries were beautifully designed, comprehensive, and engaging, encouraging tourists to use and be inspired by them. We tracked progress throughout the campaign, finding that overall the guides reached over 100,000 people, with a high percentage of link clicks, and a significant click-through-rate. The digital ads gave the partnership excellent brand awareness, and we built connections with three strong and applicable influencers to inspire their followers to visit. This campaign was a foundational momentum for future campaigns for the partnership.