Non-Profit Case Study

CHALLENGE

Upon our involvement with the Florence Merchants Car Show, we encountered a well-established event with a 16-year history, attracting up to 210 cars. As the Florence Merchants Association's key fundraising event, its success was vital for financing their annual marketing initiatives. The challenge was significant: the event lacked an online presence, with no website or social media platforms, and all records of the show and its participants were only in paper format, without any digital organization.

OUR PROCESS

We undertook a detailed process to digitize and organize the event. This included documenting every step involved in organizing the show, analyzing previous marketing strategies, and creating a comprehensive digital database of past attendees, incorporating emails, addresses, and phone numbers. These email addresses were integrated into an email marketing system, while the physical addresses were used for traditional mail marketing, including sending paper registration forms. We developed a new website for the car show, ensuring it contained all essential information and offered online registration. After setting up an efficient e-commerce system, we launched an email campaign to clean the email list and encourage early online registrations. In addition, we initiated a series of targeted paid social media ads for both car owners and attendees, starting six months before the event. Closer to the event, we mailed out paper registrations to those who hadn’t registered online. Our creative efforts extended to designing t-shirts, postcards, posters, and print ads for regional newspapers and publications. Our SEO efforts were amplified by securing high-quality inbound links from car and car show-related websites, including Dennis Gage's "My Classic Car."

RESULTS

Our multifaceted approach, encompassing SEO, social media, print advertising, and email marketing, substantially grew the event's reach. The car show's attendance soared from 210 to about 500 cars, completely filling Florence's main street and adjacent side streets. A significant highlight was the feature of the show on Dennis Gage's "My Classic Car," which broadcasted the following year. This exposure brought nationwide attention to both the Florence Merchants Car Show and the city of Florence. The event's immense success not only set new records but also solidified its status as a premier attraction.

CHALLENGE

Junktique, a long-standing event in Florence, had recently become overshadowed as a secondary element of other local events. Organized by the Florence Chamber of Commerce, the show had immense potential, given Florence's reputation as Colorado's Antique Capital. However, it was relegated to a side street with minimal marketing resources, diminishing its impact and visibility.

OUR APPROACH

As part of the volunteer board, we devised a comprehensive strategy to rejuvenate Junktique, transforming it into a standalone event. We selected a weekend free of other local events, thereby giving Junktique its own distinct identity. The event underwent a slight rebranding as the Junktique Antique Show and Flea Market. We secured relevant domain names and established a new website, alongside creating a dedicated Facebook page for effective social media marketing. We leveraged the existing email list from the Chamber of Commerce, reaching out to potential dealers and expanding our contact list through local networks and word-of-mouth. Desiant launched a Facebook event, drawing significant engagement through paid advertisements. The website quickly became the central hub for dealer applications. In addition to digital marketing, we designed and distributed postcards and posters throughout the region and erected a billboard along Highway 50 to promote the event.

RESULTS

Our targeted marketing efforts significantly amplified the event's scale and success. In its first year following our campaign, Junktique expanded from a single side street to encompass three city blocks, attracting over 70 vendors and thousands of attendees. The subsequent year saw even greater growth, with the event occupying three blocks of the main street and several side streets, hosting 125 vendor spaces. This expansion resulted in remarkable sales, exceeding $100,000 over the weekend, marking a significant milestone in the event's history and revitalizing its presence in Florence.

CHALLENGE

The Fremont Economic Development Corporation approached us to develop a centralized job board for the South Central Region. Despite the existence of multiple job listing platforms in the area, there was a clear need for a unified hub specifically for local job opportunities.

OUR APPROACH

In response, we developed a content management system tailored for the job board, enabling companies to list and manage their job openings. Initially, the design was basic, but it incorporated a feature allowing businesses to create accounts and manage their job listings for free. As the project evolved, we enhanced the search functionalities to adhere to all job posting standards. The job board primarily served as a central hub, with most job listings linking out to the respective company websites for application submission. We introduced a variety of search options, including a map feature, to aid in finding the ideal job. Subsequently, an advertising system was integrated to ensure the job board's self-sustainability. We also played a key role in recruiting a manager for the job board, responsible for maintaining company and job listings and assisting companies in setting up their profiles and job posts.

RESULTS

Today, the South Central Region Job Board stands as the largest of its kind in the state, boasting over 650 job listings at any time and consistently high website traffic. We are actively working on introducing new and exciting features to further enhance the job board's functionality and user experience.