Best Scrappy Marketing Campaign - 2017 Marketing Pinnacle Award from AMA Cincinnati
As a member of the Steering Committee of WordCamp Cincinnati 2016, I am delighted that WordCamp Cincinnati 2016 received an American Marketing Association (AMA) Marketing Pinnacle Award for the Best Scrappy Marketing Campaign.
The steering committee worked tirelessly to build a WordCamp that provided a range of educational opportunities including How-To, Marketing, Developer, and WordPress 101 tracks. The steering committee shamelessly leveraged personal and professional contacts to build event momentum and secure needed resources.
The Marketing Committee implemented a combination of traditional and digital inbound marketing strategies to raise awareness and build enthusiasm for the event. Recognizing that we would draw attendees from various user groups including Business Owners, Agency Owners, Website Development Professionals, Independent Contractors, Inbound Marketers, Graphic Designers, SEO Experts, Educators, Sponsors, Speakers, and Volunteers, we developed personas for each component of our target market.
We then sought to grab the attention of our personas in the ecosystems where they played. On the traditional side, we printed flyers and distributed them in libraries, coffee shops, incubators, community boards, and on the University of Cincinnati campus. Using the WordCamp Cincinnati 2016 website as the digital marketing hub for our online marketing efforts, we crafted useful and engaging content that would appeal to our target personas. This content was expressed in text, graphics, video, and audio (radio) content. We then used social media to amplify our messaging across a diverse assortment of platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Vimeo, WordPressTV, Public Digital Calendars and WordPress Meetups. Tentpole Marketing techniques were used to leverage Cincinnati-based events of broad public interest (like Hollywood movies being filmed in Cincinnati) and national events that engaged public interest (like the national presidential election that would be held shortly after WordCamp).
The collective efforts of the WordCamp Cincinnati 2016 steering committee and additional volunteers provided a great deal of positive momentum that helped us leverage marketing efforts for this inaugural WordCamp Cincinnati event.
We are honored to be the recipients of the AMA Cincinnati Pinnacle Award for the Best Scrappy Marketing Campaign.
We look forward to WordCamp Cincinnati 2017 on November 11-12, 2017 at the University of Cincinnati.
