Building M&C Business Opportunities & IMEX Engagement

By Kerrie Yancey

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No windy promises here. Digital Edge helped enhance Choose Chicago’s meetings marketing strategies, awareness of destination appeal and engagement at IMEX America, ultimately driving cohesive branding and increased sales success for the organization and sales team.

Here’s a look at the success of Choose Chicago’s meetings marketing and the strategy that drove it.

Challenge

Choose Chicago’s sales team needed support to highlight meetings & conventions and bring a strong brand presence to their sales collateral.

They needed to showcase their city and the business infrastructure within the destination.

In addition, there was a need for B2B guidance on the different ways to effectively engage with planners, having previously focused primarily on leisure travel.

Mae
“An added layer of opportunity was that our partnership coincided with a significant enhancement of the company's leadership team – new sales leaders and a fresh C-suite, including a CEO and CMO who joined within the first year of our collaboration. We knew the Choose Chicago team needed an agency with adaptability and resilience to navigate these exciting changes. And we welcomed the opportunity!”
Mae Bodine | DIGITAL EDGE
Vice President of Client Strategy & Development

The Goals

Organization Goals

Enhance sales support

Improve planner engagement

Grow awareness of destination appeal

Cohesive branding across marketing & sales assets

Sales Team Goals

Boost citywide conventions during low-demand periods

Attract Chicago-based meetings back to Chicago

Improve lead generation and closing ratio
for in-house events

Enhance IMEX America presence & engagement

Solution

Digital Edge took a layered approach to the solution, bringing together an always-on marketing strategy, sales-focused strategic work and a targeted creative marketing campaign – a campaign that maintained but elevated the integrity of Chicago’s brand and informed the design of an additional, dedicated landing page that engaged prospects at one of the biggest shows of the year – IMEX America.

Overall Meetings Marketing Campaign

The Deliverables

  • Meetings Campaign Concept & Messaging
  • Sales Tools
  • Creative alignment

IMEX America

Digital Edge created a cohesive IMEX marketing plan for Choose Chicago, integrating an IMEX-focused campaign and landing page with pre-show hype, mobile advertising and post-show follow-up.

Chicago is the city where meetings are built, and we’re the agency that helps cities build them. Contact Digital Edge to see how we can work together.