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Since 2014, Avenir Bold has partnered with Marketplace Events to coordinate media planning and buying for the Downtown Raleigh Home Show. Every year, the Show would compete directly with the Southern Ideal Home Show for visitor traffic – a situation made even worse by the two events usually being scheduled on consecutive weekends of the year. 

In 2017, Marketplace Events purchased the Southern Ideal Home Show and enlisted Avenir Bold to handle the media planning and buying for both events. The challenge for us was to evolve our media strategy from promoting one show over the other, to successfully promoting and driving tickets sales for each event.

Another unforeseen challenge: the weather. Hurricane Irma was forecast to hit the Raleigh area during the weekend of the Downtown Raleigh show. Coverage of the storm, lasting a week running up the event, was sure to negatively impact ticket sales and attendance. Marketing efforts for both shows would need to work overtime to compensate for the decline.

• Create two separate and efficient media campaigns for each home show.
• Drive attendance for the Downtown Home Show and exceed previous benchmarks.
• Have a successful inaugural Southern Ideal Home Show while maintaining and improving sales numbers.
• Drive database signups. 

To glean key insights, Avenir Bold conducted market research utilizing Scarborough and other research tools as well as our own knowledge, expertise and past show data. Deep analysis of other key markets with shows of this caliber was conducted as well. Finally, we tapped into the offerings of various media vendors to help brainstorm unique promotional ideas and ensure a creative, but effective media solution for our client.

We learned that the Downtown Raleigh Home Show attracts a younger audience and more first-time attendees. The Southern Ideal Home Show, on the other hand, has become more of a family tradition where visitors come with children and grandchildren year after year. We were able to use these insights to differentiate the TV campaigns for both shows by focusing media for the Southern Ideal show during the daytime – a decision that was especially important during the week between the two shows

Using Scarborough data, we identified TV and radio stations that best reached our target audience of homeowners aged 35 to 64 with an interest in home improvement.

Based on the timing of both shows, we needed to ensure as little overlap as possible between the two campaigns. We made sure to distinguish the two with a creative mix of media placed strategically based on client data and the traditions of each show. Our solution involved the following:

• Purchasing airtime on different radio stations to minimize overlap.
• Tactically placing print ads to support both shows while minimizing overlap.
• Negotiating trade email blasts for both shows with each blast utilizing unique promotion codes for performance tracking related to ticket sales.
• Developing creative promotions for each show including on-air and online spots as well as contest pages, social media posts and a presence at each event.

• Downtown Raleigh Home Show

• Fall Getaway Promotion
• Downtown Raleigh Home Show Scavenger Hunt
• Kitchen Cousins Meet & Greet

• Southern Ideal Home Show

• Star Teach Spotlight Promotion
• Matt Muenster Meet & Gree

We also implemented inclement weather promotions due to Hurricane Irma. New promotion codes were provided to various vendors to incentivize ticket sales. Media inventory was also added on local weather apps and saw huge upticks in traffic as people tracked the storm. We were also able to use this experience of inclement weather affecting ticket sales and attendance to inform our monitoring of the Southern Ideal Home Show the following weekend. 

Even with Hurricane Irma on the horizon, the campaign drove impressive attendance numbers as well as event satisfaction for both shows. Here are just a few results of note:

Avenir Bold’s research-based thinking and creative solutions in 2017 led to even more partnership opportunities with Marketplace Events. Currently, our successful client relationship includes managing duties for three well-known NC Home Shows: Downtown Raleigh, Southern Ideal, and Greensboro Ideal.