Explore Licking County
The Project
Explore Licking County partnered with Inspire PR Group to raise awareness about the area’s tourism offerings with the specific objective of generating regional and national media placements to increase tourism in the area.
Inspire deployed a comprehensive media relations campaign, which included creating an editorial calendar outlining special dates and events throughout the region’s peak tourism season (April – October) to identify pitch opportunities around attractions in the region. Inspire conducted targeted, proactive pitching to regional and national writers focused on tourism, food, lifestyle, outdoors, the arts, breweries, etc. Inspire also facilitated the planning and coordination of familiarization (FAM) visits by bloggers and writers.
In addition to media relations, Inspire has supported Explore Licking County’s annual IMPACT Awards over multiple years. The IMPACT Awards are presented to outstanding tourism partners who go above and beyond to make Licking County an exciting destination. Inspire’s efforts included the creation and management of all social media content and ads leading up to, during and following the event. Inspire provided on-site support to manage live social posting during the event, as well as shot and produced a video highlighting the IMPACT Awards and the winners that was shared on social media.
The Results
- Inspire’s proactive media outreach and influencer engagement garnered 35 total placements that generated nearly 4.5 million impressions.
- Inspire secured placements in outlets like TODAY.com, Manhattan Digest, Cincinnati Refined, The Columbus Dispatch, AAA Magazine, Columbus Alive, Breakfast with Nick (blog) and more.
- For the 2019 IMPACT Awards, Explore Licking County’s Facebook posts reached 59,000 people with an average engagement rate of 4.9 percent.
- Through social media advertising, Inspire reached more than 15K people and drove 300 visits to the IMPACT Awards ticket sales page on Explore Licking County’s website.