Explore Gwinnett’s Long-Term Investment for Meetings Marketing Success

By Mae Bodine & Colette DuChanois

Start small. Think big. Plan for the future.

That’s the same approach Explore Gwinnett has taken by partnering with Digital Edge and investing in a long-term strategic meetings marketing program.

Elevated destination awareness among key audiences

Sales & marketing alignment

This success story stems from the willingness of the destination marketing organization for Georgia’s Gwinnett County to make an investment that’s not just financial. The DMO has decided to trust us, allowing us to provide the type of support that can’t be translated into a specific line item in a budget.

It’s a sounding board for internal ideas. It’s recommendations. It’s opportunities to both execute and direct work. It’s a partnership in every sense.

Read Explore Gwinnett’s success story — proof that, regardless of a destination’s size or budget, there’s value in investing in a B2B agency.

The Challenge

An international, diverse destination

Gwinnett County, a diverse destination located just 30 minutes northeast of downtown Atlanta, began to experience substantial growth, and the DMO needed to do a lot with a little. Explore Gwinnett needed to raise awareness of the destination’s meetings product among focused planner audiences and keep up with market demands.

Explore Gwinnnett’s checklist:

Explore Gwinnett Senior Director of Marketing Victoria Hawkins came across Digital Edge’s capabilities on LinkedIn, spotting how their content and media marketing showcased the agency’s expertise in B2B marketing — specifically for destination organizations in the meetings & convention space. She saw a need to work with an agency specializing in meetings marketing to leverage their expertise, engage the right planner audiences and create demand for the destination with the opening of the new Gas South Convention Center’s multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion and headquarter hotel on the horizon.

I've seen your work and I love the fact that your focus is meetings. … I'd like to work with a team that can point us in the right direction rather than learning alongside us.
Victoria Hawkins
Senior Director of Marketing Explore Gwinnett

The Solution

In 2023, Explore Gwinnett and Digital Edge started on their journey together. It started with a conversation about the framework and the investment in an at least three-year program of work. The multi-year collaboration enabled us to lay the groundwork in the first year and build on it in the upcoming years as part of a phased approach. It also allowed the flexibility to strategically choose what we wanted to focus on and become an extension of Explore Gwinnett’s team.

Year 1

Developing awareness and content strategies around “Detour from the Default” messaging, encouraging planners to plan an alternative to Atlanta.

Year 2

Creating more marketing collateral, including expanding the messaging to focus on Gwinnett’s 16 cities and unique meeting-friendly locations, and providing the Explore Gwinnett team with a strong meetings & conventions foundation.

Year 3

Building more sales collateral, including a trade show booth and activation strategy to support a major trade show, aligning with Gwinnett’s market segment.

Mae
"Getting more leads and RFPs doesn’t happen overnight. With Explore Gwinnett’s investment in a long-term partnership, we’ve been able to custom-tailor our work to their goals and give them the sales & marketing strategies and tools to play on the same court as big competitors."
Mae Bodine | Digital Edge
VP of Client Strategy & Development

The Results

The multi-year partnership between Explore Gwinnett and Digital Edge has allowed the destination organization to execute an omnichannel B2B marketing strategy reaching more planners who fit Gwinnett’s meetings product. This is especially important now more than ever, with digital marketing allowing destinations to gain more reach with fewer dollars. By committing to a long-term digital marketing program, Explore Gwinnett has strengthened its competitiveness to attract meetings & conventions business.

The long-term commitment to working with Digital Edge has also given the Explore Gwinnett team the resources needed to sell the destination and secure booked business.

It has yielded a meetings marketing message with legs, allowing “Detour from the Default” to be integrated into overall marketing & sales initiatives.

And it has allowed us to tailor deliverables to address new needs, like the creation of the trade show booth and activation strategy.

Interested in learning more about our meetings marketing strategies to elevate the positioning of smaller destinations? Get in touch.