Just beyond the city limits of the nation’s third-largest metropolis, the Chicago Southland is home to countless spaces for meetings, gatherings, or friendly sports competition. The Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau represents 62 of the suburbs south and southwest of Chicago, marketing the Southland as a premier Midwest destination for leisure tourism, meetings and conventions, group tours, sporting events and more.
Obviously, Chicago is a major destination for corporate meetings and conferences, drawing businesses and organizations from around the world. In addition, Chicago is a prime destination for reunions, get-togethers and youth sports tournaments with its world-class facilities and its easy accessibility by highway, rail or air.
Of course, those opportunities are also available outside the limits of the Windy City — and for a fraction of the cost. So, the challenge for McDaniels Marketing was to position the Chicago Southland CVB as the premier organization in the Midwest for booking group events such as meetings, sporting events, group tours and reunion/social events.
Getting Down to Business
The McD Creative Team highlighted the venues available in the Chicago Southland including hotels, conference centers, ball diamonds, gyms and more. But the most attractive quality the creatives identified — the one that truly sets the Chicago Southland apart from the Windy City — was the free parking. No astronomic fees in parking garages, no Ferris Bueller valets — just park and enjoy your event. So, the creative team wrote and designed ads that showcased parking in the Chicago Southland alongside the top-notch venues prepared to meet whatever event the user had in mind, from corporate seminars to little league baseball games.
The McD Digital team then identified key interests, keywords and topics and used that data to serve the ads on the Google Display Network, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn from October 2021 – October 2022.
And the results?
Simply put, this digital campaign certainly got the ball rolling for the Southland. The Google Display campaign served more than 4 million impressions during the life of the campaign, earning 19,118 clicks for a clickthrough rate of 0.47% and an average cost-per-click of $0.36. Additionally, McD Digital noted almost 11% of click traffic came from a tablet or computer which shows purchasing intent/decision making — a sign of strong leads and increased interest in major Midwestern cities.
On Facebook and Instagram, the campaign received 32,513 clicks on 2.78 million impressions for a CTR of 1.17% and an average CPC of $0.37. The campaign also recorded hundreds of reactions, comments and shares, with many engagements with ads and conversations happening in the comment sections.
On LinkedIn, ads reached 378,523 unique users, earning 2,615 clicks on 523,136 impressions for a CTR of 0.50% and an average CPC of $3.53. A successful campaign by LinkedIn standards of performance, the campaign reached owners, event planners, production planners, and more across numerous industries, including healthcare, higher education, and sports.
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Let us help you take your marketing strategy to the next level with McD Marketing. Contact Randy McDaniels at rmcdaniels@mcdmarketing.com or call (309) 346-7412 for more information. |
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