At VISIT PHILADELPHIA®, our mission is clear. It’s our job to build Greater Philadelphia’s image, drive visitation and boost the economy. That’s the mission we have in mind when we develop a campaign, an ad, a web article, a social media post, a hotel package, a contest, anything and everything we do, really.
For each marketing initiative, we aim to meet and exceed our goals — goals established explicitly to help us fulfill our mission. And after every project, we evaluate what went well, what could have gone better and what we learned that will inform and improve future initiatives.
In this section, you’ll get the lowdown on some of our latest key projects: our objectives, our targets and, most importantly, our results — results that yield jobs, tax revenue and economic impact for the Greater Philadelphia region.
OBJECTIVE
At a time when the City and region experienced unprecedented need and historic disruption, VISIT PHILADELPHIA supported the destination and delivered against our mission through results-driven marketing efforts. To strengthen promotional efforts for Juneteenth and Fourth of July, we negotiated $1.5M in national TV airtime, generate positive press coverage for the region, supported area businesses, and boosted civic pride.
PRESS HIGHLIGHTS
HOTEL OCCUPENCY
BROADCAST
WEBSITES Welcome America Site
VisitPhilly.com
Digital Brochure
47,800+ views
Wawa Welcome America Social Media
1,471,301 impressions, 26,808 engagements
OVERVIEW Philadelphia and Hilton made it easy and safe to get back to what travelers missed most – exceptional, memory-making moments.
Motivate travelers to consider and plan their 2021 overnight trips to Philadelphia with Hilton hotels through specific paid media and digital content tactics such as a co-branded billboard, paid content distribution on VISIT PHILADELPHIA’’s social media channels and a branded video spot.
TARGET
Recent Leisure Travelers (those who have taken an overnight trip within the past 3 months) in local (Philadelphia, Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Harrisburg—York—Lebanon) and regional (New York, Washington DC, Baltimore, Boston) Designated Market Areas.
RESULTS
Raise awareness of the Philadelphia experience, promote local businesses and Philly favorites, and tell the stories of Philadelphia that aren’t being told anywhere else.
Diverse Market travelers looking for inspirational content that speaks directly to them, recognizing their interests beyond the mainstream population.
OPPORTUNITY
Uncover and amplify the exceptional, diverse and largely untold stories of Philadelphians that prove the unmatched passion, grit and innovation of our city.
KEY MESSAGE
Love + Grit. Started in Philly.
Love + Grit is where you come to hear the stories of the Philadelphian creators you’ll want to know, where you find the places in Philadelphia you’ll want to get to first, and where you learn about the history-makers we’ll all be celebrating before they become legend.
CALL TO ACTION
Want the real stories of Philadelphia innovation? Listen up. Love + Grit is available to download on all major platforms. Drive directly to podcast platforms.
Live Nation Urban Partnership: Love + Grit Concert Series
In partnership with Live Nation Philadelphia and Live Nation Urban, VISIT PHILADELPHIA announced the launch of the Love + Grit Concert Series, featuring performances and interviews with Philadelphia musical artists. The series, an extension of VISIT PHILADELPHIA’s popular Love + Grit podcast, debuted on June 1, the first day of Black Music MOnth, and attracted over 100,000 unique viewers.
The Love + Grit Concert Series appears on BlackStream Live, a network curating live programming focused on Black creators in partnership with Twitch, the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers and others.
Advertising
Opportunity to illustrate Visit Philadelphia’s ongoing commitment to Philly’s diverse communities with high-impact audio and video content.
Ads will generate awareness and drive downloads and subscriptions of the Love + Grit podcast by reaching local podcast listeners in exclusive audio environments.
Upcoming Guests / Talent
Love + Grit’s latest episode kicks off Black Music Month with Brianna Castro and Beano French, who are two of the artists from the Love + Grit Live Concert Series, BlackStream Live on Twitch.
Future guests include Ivan Henderson, vice president of programming at The African American Museum in Philadelphia; and Khalil Munir, author of The Crown is Yours.
With 2.1 million total views during the pandemic, Visit Philly returned Philly Live Weekends on May 16, 2021, shifting to liv, real-time social posts, given the lift of health restrictions.
Philly Live Weekends was developed to bring the expansive offerings of the region directly into consumers’ homes at a time when in-person visitation was restricted. As our attractions, institutions, retail and restaurants reopen, Philly LIve Weekends has been retired to focus on developing content that can be experienced in real-time and on location.
Locals and regional residents
INSIGHT
Locals and visitors don’t know how, where and when they can visit various destinations. And lost revenue has decreased businesses’ budgets for paid marketing.
Promote Dine Latino Restaurant Week (DLRW), May 5-9, 2021. Support and celebrate Philadelphia’s Latinx-owned restaurants, chefs and photographers.
THE IDEA
Build upon Visit Philadelphia’s ongoing Black- and Brown-Owned Business initiative by partnering with the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to amplify Dine Latino Restaurant Week and support Latinx-owned restaurants in developing content for self-promotion.
Visit Philadelphia commissioned some of Philadelphia’s top Latinx photographers to photograph 11 participating Latinx-owned restaurants, providing high-resolution images the restaurants can use in press outreach, print and digital advertising, and social media.
In partnership with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Visit Philadelphia featured Dine Latino Restaurant Week in prominent web content before and during the event, actively advertising, pitching and promoting the event in order to help raise awareness and support for hospitality industry and those hit hardest by the pandemic.
Drive engagement with travelers on owned channels and partner’s channels to generate leads (email subscribers) and inspire visitors to book a trip to Philadelphia for this year’s Flower Show and any summer weekend.
Major holidays have been a trigger for booking overnight visits as pent up demand for travel and celebration continues to rise. We wanted to capitalize on the importance of this Mother’s Day and the demand for a first-of-its-kind Philadelphia Flower Show to offer VIsit Philadelphia fans, followers and subscribers a chance to win the effect MOther’s Day gift: An easy escape to the country’s biggest flower show and a top dining scene, plus a chance to sleep in with room service.
Why give Mom a bouquet of flowers when you can give her an easy escape to the country’s biggest flower show? From May 4-16, 2021, we used our owned channels and PHS’ owned channels to support The Visit Philadelphia City of Motherly Love Giveaway, driving people to extend Mother’s Day by entering to win an amazing gift for mom, valued at $979.
The Visit Philly Overnight Package — booked more than 190,000 times since 2001 — comes with free hotel parking (worth up to $100 in Center City Philadelphia), overnight hotel accommodations and choose-your-own-adventure perks.