vIsit Fort Wayne
“Access Success” Campaign
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Situation
Located in northeastern Indiana, Fort Wayne offers a wide variety of premier venues for both meetings and sports events. To bring events to the destination, Visit Fort Wayne’s sales team invests many resources in attending trade shows and conferences to meet with planners and introduce them to all that the region has to offer. However, the DMO had no cohesive marketing strategy to represent these facilities at industry events or in a digital space.
APPROACH
The Visit Fort Wayne team worked with Madden Media to conduct destination discovery and research sessions to understand the nuances of the location and the unique selling points that the DMO offers to its sales clients. The Madden team spent time in-market touring facilities, meeting with key stakeholders, and hosting listening sessions to understand what sets the destination apart from other competitors in the space. Time and time again, the notion of top-tier, hands-on support rose to the surface, emphasizing the personalized experiences that planners receive when they host their event in Fort Wayne.
RESULTS
We developed the ‘Access Success’ campaign which gives a nod toward the Fort Wayne team’s hospitality roots in the messaging. Bright colors and overarching destination content were infused into the brand messaging – going beyond just empty ballrooms and square footage statistics that are so commonly seen in meetings and sports marketing. We wanted to stand out from the crowd, bridging the gap between business and leisure to showcase how event attendees can experience the destination in multiple facets while participating in conferences, trade shows, sporting tournaments, and more.
MEMORABLE EXPOSURE
This brand campaign was unveiled throughout Visit Fort Wayne’s conference presence in the 2023 year, with a strategic presence at shows such as Connect Midwest, CMCA, Sports ETA, TEAMS, and more. These sponsorships went beyond static logo presence to include memorable exposure opportunities such as:
– Stage time during key conference sessions
– Custom e-blasts
– Participation in panels
– Branded room drop gifts for attendees
The creative assets for the campaign were featured in non-traditional ways through these partnerships, allowing attendees to continue to engage with the Fort Wayne sales team.
visitforwayne.com
In addition, a year-long supplementary digital campaign through ongoing paid search, social media, remarketing efforts, and geofenced rich media units helped to reinforce the offerings of the destination and draw engagement through VisitFortWayne.com. Parts of our strategy included:
– Reaching planners on platforms where they may already be exploring such as Facebook and LinkedIn while also utilizing strategic bidding for key paid search terms.
– Geofencing at major events with ad units being served to conference attendees after the fact to keep Fort Wayne top of mind.
– Securing targeted publication sponsorships that allowed Visit Fort Wayne to have a presence in both print and digital with already engaged audiences of prospective planners.
achieving our goals
The ‘Access Success’ campaign allowed Visit Fort Wayne to elevate its meetings and sports offerings via a unique and engaging creative strategy. The various touchpoints of the project allowed the Visit Fort Worth sales team to cultivate deeper relationships with potential clients while highlighting the bespoke service that planners can expect when they bring their event to Fort Wayne.
