Durden Outdoor

PROBLEM:

A burgeoning local web community needed a unique way to increase awareness and drive new membership. As a new social networking website, DothanVoice.com wanted to attract Dothan residents that were looking for a unique way to connect with friends online. The concern was insuring the ability to reach potential users that were not already online and to offer them an alternative way to make connections and build relationships online and close to home.

SOLUTION:

Durden Outdoor Display's award winning Image Department worked closely with DothanVoice.com to create a Rotary Poster Campaign that would saturate the Dothan market over the course of 12 weeks. The Image Department created a look geared towards turning heads and generating a brand awareness that was intended to increase web traffic and new user profiles. The results were clear. DothanVoice.com saw a 55% increase in membership compared to the previous three months prior to the Rotary Poster Campaign. Based on a new member poll, over 90% of the new members were generated from the billboard campaign. DothanVoice.com also saw a staggering 62% increase in web traffic as compared to the months prior to working with Durden's Image Department.

TroyFest , held in honor of Jean Lake, is the premier fine art & craft festival for the central Alabama region. The weekend long show draws upwards of 10,000 people to downtown Troy to celebrate the arts. As always, a wonderful selection of art, food, entertainment and activities is offered for people of all ages. In 2006, TroyFest was designated as an “Official Year of Alabama Art Event.” Today the festival continues to be recognized as a top emerging art show by many art show review publications and “Top 10 Event by the Alabama Bureau of Travel and Tourism". The festival is held annually during the last weekend in April and celebrated it's 7th annual event in 2009. This year TroyFest combined their more traditional advertising approach of yard signs, newspaper, and other local media with a more extensive Outdoor Advertising campaign. Stephanie Baker of TroyFest mentioned that, in the past, Troyfest had only advertised locally. Even a previous billboard campaign many years ago had targeted just the Troy area. Stephanie told Durden Outdoor that this year was the first year they had extended their marketing to include the rest of the Wiregrass Area. Troyfest utilized a regional Rotary Campaign, targeting Dothan, Enterprise, Ozark, and Troy for the eight weeks preceeding the event.

"The response was definitely noticed," said Stephanie when asked about any feedback they may have recieved regarding the campaign. "It can be difficult to determine what advertising is generating the most response but we definitely noticed an increase in calls and questions regarding TroyFest when our billboards went up." Stephanie informed Durden Outdoor that the boards also helped to recruit local artists and other talent for the event as well. "I think that many people use billboards to promote a product or a business and don't consider them when it comes to event promoting," said Stephanie, "but it has certainly helped spread the word about TroyFest!"