Ohio Chamber of Commerce
The Project
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) wished to amplify and enhance its position as the leading advocate for the state’s businesses and a champion of free enterprise for all Ohioans. Recent negative events within state government and the arrest of key elected and political leaders, as well as upcoming state and national elections, renewed focus on the critical importance of integrity in policymaking.
Inspire worked with the Chamber to implement a communications campaign with the following objectives:
- Demonstrate to current and potential members and stakeholders that the Chamber’s value proposition is centered on integrity
- Differentiate the Chamber from bad actors in Ohio’s lobbying and political climate
- Distinguish the Chamber’s practices and processes as being unique, innovative and desirable for stakeholders
- Showcase the Chamber’s history and track record of ethical operations with integrity
- Reinforce to current and prospective members the value of Chamber membership and specific benefits
Through a combination of thought leadership, stakeholder and member engagement, paid online advertising, sponsored content and social media outreach, Inspire helped the Chamber communicate how it holds itself, and its members, to a higher standard. Inspire’s strategy for the Chamber focused on differentiating the Chamber and positioning the organization for future growth, without unnecessarily self-aggrandizing.
The Results
- Viewers of the campaign page on the Chamber website spent an average of 1 minute and 48 seconds on the page, which indicated they took the time to read and absorb the information and resources.
- Four placements were obtained as a direct result of media relations efforts in prominent Ohio publications, including the Columbus Business Journal, The Columbus Dispatch and the Akron Beacon Journal, with a potential audience reach of more than 155,500.
- Three native articles ran in Ohio’s three major markets, including Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland and received nearly 500,000 total impressions.
- The native content and display ads drove nearly 24,000 visits to the Chamber website.
- Five member testimonials were collected from members and quotes were shared on graphics via the Chamber’s social media, where they were some of the top posts of the campaign.
- Content shared on the Chamber’s Facebook page related to the Invest in Integrity campaign reached 22,000 people and received more than 1,500 engagements.
- Through targeted Facebook advertising, more than 600 new fans were added to the Chamber Facebook page.
- Advertising on Facebook increased the reach of the Facebook page by 28x in three months. Facebook also went from driving almost no web visits to being a top driver of traffic.