Wendell August Forge
Lake Wilhelm at Maurice K. Goddard State Park
WaterFire Sharon
FY 2018/19 HIGHLIGHTS
President/CEO Message
VisitMercerCountyPA is the marketing leader for the travel and tourism industry in Mercer County with the goal to expand and strengthen travel and tourism and enhance the overall economy of Mercer County.
Tourism continues to be a major factor in Mercer County’s economy. More than six million people from the U.S and Canada visit Mercer County annually, accounting for about $400 million in spending. Our major campaigns (shopping, golf, outdoor adventure, wine and brew trail, and romantic getaways) have a direct call to action and generate thousands of requests. Over 100,000 visitors come to our website yearly to find information on things to do and places to stay.
VisitMercerCountyPA provides a comprehensive advertising program to build tourism and to keep Mercer County at the forefront as a travel destination. We run targeted online and print media campaigns, produce quality publications, maintain a responsive website, promote the county at marketplaces and provide ongoing PR efforts for Mercer County. However we don’t feel that traditional marketing is enough to get the results we want in the very competitive tourism industry.
We constantly think “out of the box”, creating programs for tourism marketing and tourism development. Four years ago we had 2000 fans on Facebook. Today we have almost 20,000 Like/Followers and our Facebook page is growing by over 100-200 “likes” per week. Our social media presence has taken off with Giveaway Mondays, Wine Down Wednesdays, Foodie Fridays, Live Videos, Real People, and Did You Know posts, and we are seeing great results. The Giveaway Mondays are reaching anywhere from 50,000-150,000 people. Instagram and Twitter have also seen great growth over the past year as well. We are working on developing a stronger Youtube presence in FY 2019/2020.
Promoting the Wine & Brew trail through providing customized itineraries, transportation, help with overnight accommodations and dinner arrangements is a new effort we initiated in the last two years. This segment of the tourism industry now features 8 wineries,4 breweries and 2 distilleries. The wine segment of the trail is stepping out on their own with an inaugural event in FY 2019/2020.
Another ‘out of the box” program we established was cooperative advertising. We believe that promoting specific tourism assets is just as important as county wide promotions. Each year we partner with our members to promote specific assets in Mercer County. $96,000.00 is set aside to match amounts our members commit.
Other ways in which we are trailblazers is the importance we place on product development. Traditionally most tourism promotion agencies operate solely in the marketing arena. However our agency recognized early that the product we offer is just as important as the marketing focus. This year we placed $100,000.00 in the Tourism Attraction Development Grant program (TAG) to increase tourism attraction development and expansion.
New this year is the Major Projects campaign. We are making an assertive effort to draw new attractions that will increase hotel occupancy and help the county to become an all season destination. We are committing a million dollars over five years to this effort.
We continue to face challenges with a decline in Canadian travel and overnight stays due to an exchange rate where Canadians only receive .74 cents on our dollar. We’ve also experienced additional hotel growth and need to seek ways to expand the number of overnight stays. Extremely rainy weather conditions posed significant challenges to golf last season. However we are positioning ourselves to meet these challenges. Mercer County is a wonderful place for those authentic and diverse experiences that travelers are looking for. We are centrally located, and we have the vision to create new products and packages to help Mercer County’s tourism industry grow.
Thank You Members & Supporters, Peggy
Mazyck, President/CEO
MARKETING HIGHLIGHTS
PR Publications Printed
❖ Two or more press releases and two blogs written every month.
❖ Weekly email blasts to over 10,000 who have opted in on our list.
❖ Each press release and blog is promoted on Facebook and also shared in an email blast.
❖ The Herald and other local news picked up press releases on Avenue of 444 Flags, Keystone Safari, National Button Box Festival, St. Patrick Day Weekend Campaign, WaterFire Sharon Event of Year Award, Greenville Heritage Days and many other events and attractions.
❖ WFMJ sent news crew to the National Button Box Festival, Keystone Safari and others.
❖ 2 page feature on Wester Farm B & B in Pennsylvania Magazine.
❖ Lake Wilhelm Spring into Summer– March/April issue of PA Angler and Boater.
❖ Feature on Crappie Fishing Shenango Lake – CrappieNow.com
❖ Mercer County Craft Beer, Wine Scene Growing – goerie.com
❖ Numerous mentions of Mercer County attractions and events on WKBN.com and WFMJ.com
TV / Print
❖ Visitors Guide
❖ Coupon Book
❖ Calendars of Events
❖ Outdoor Adventure Guide
❖ Downtown Walking Maps
❖ Golf Guide
❖ Wine, Brew & Spirits Guide
Friends & Farmily Campaign on WKBN/WYTV to reach regional markets in Northeast OH. TV advertising also included co-op advertising with WaterFire Sharon and State Street Treasures in the Pittsburgh and Ohio Markets.
Print advertising included publications in the Pittsburgh, NE Ohio and Southern Ontario markets.
Through our regional affiliation with PA’s Great Lakes Region we advertised in the following:
❖ PA Visitors Guide and VisitPA.com
❖ DreamScapes Magazine and Online Banner (Canadian Publication)
❖ Horizon Magazine and Online Banner (Canadian Publication)
❖ Crossing Magazine and Online Banner (Canadian Publication)
MARKETING HIGHLIGHTS
Group Tour Update
Over 800 motorcoaches traveled to Mercer County during the fiscal year; the greatest number to Grove City Premium Outlets. Also popular are stops at Kraynaks, Tara–A Country Inn, The Avenue of 444 Flags, Chocolate Candy shops, Wendell August, Reyers Shoes, WaterFire Sharon and others. In partnership with VisitErie, we promoted Mercer County at the Ontario Motorcoach Association Marketplace and American Bus Association Marketplace. Our office directly assisted 18 motor coach companies with their visit. Examples of companies we assisted are:
Wine
& Brew Trail
❖ Covered Wagon, Western NY
❖ Coach USA: Pittsburgh
❖ Galaxy Tours, Chicago
We promoted the Wine & Brew Trail extensively online. As a special promotion we provided 20 custom itineraries and tours on the trail for special group requests. For FY 2019/20 the wine part of the trail has formed the Shenango Woodland Wine Trail and will host their first inaugural event.
Golf
Our office and members of the Mercer County Golf Trail participated at 4 shows to promote golfing and overnight stays in Mercer County. One of our hotels indicate they booked over $100,000.00 in golf packages.
❖ Cleveland Golf Show
❖ Toronto, ON, Canada Golf Show
❖ Pittsburgh Golf Show
❖ Niagara Golf Show
Rainy weather had a negative impact on golf in the fiscal year.
and more
❖ Great Canadian, Canada
MARKETING HIGHLIGHTS
Social Media
We had a great year of growth for all our social media platforms. and continued our “Goodbye Monday Blues, Hello Giveaway Monday” contests.
We saw a lot of growth on Facebook....we are at almost 20,000 Likes and Followers.
New Features:
❖ MadeInMercerCountyPA
❖ PeopleOfMercerCountyPA
More Videos:
❖ Our Kraynaks video was viewed 446,000 times and the reach was 654,113. Our “Live Video” at Keystone Safari park feeding the giraffe was the first of its kind.
More Intriguing and Beautiful Photos:
❖ Being present at events to capture more PEOPLE enjoying Mercer County.
❖ Photo shoots with models.
❖ Photo shoots for members to build a collection of photos for everyone to use.
Digital Marketing
2018-2019 Overview
❖ 103,812 Website Traffic in FY2019. The number of times that the website was visited during the 2018-2019 Fiscal Year using both Paid Search and Organic Search results combined.
❖ Organic traffic was up 61% for FY2019.
❖ Organic traffic had a 53% increase in Conversions in FY 2019.
Marketing Campaigns:
❖ Outdoor Recreation - 10,792 Visits; 1,404K Display Impressions
❖ Romantic Getaways - 11,775 Visits; 1,381K Display Impressions
❖ Golf - 16,346 Visits, 3,282K; Display Impressions
❖ Shopping - 17,456 Visits; 1,665K Display Impressions
❖ Wine & Brew Trail - 5,761 Visits; 601K Display Impressions
❖ Conferences, Meetings & Retreats - 5,087 Visits; 1,243K Display Impressions
❖ Search Engine Optimization - 34K Visits
❖ Native Content - 863 Visits; 1657K Display Impressions
❖ Digital PR - 104 results found leading to a potential reach of 89K readers
❖ Tourism Bucks - 1,080 Visits; 265K Display Impressions
❖ Video Optimization - 103K times our videos were watched
VisitMercerCountyPA Agency of Record - Higher Images
Digital Marketing Advertising Agency founded in Pittsburgh with 18 years of experience covering website design, Search Engine Optimization, Native Content and Digital PR and Paid Search including Google and Webtracker.
Their mission is to make a valuable contribution to businesses worldwide by being a partner and resource for all things marketing. From digital marketing to branding, Higher Images implements innovative programs that improve online presence with results in accordance with the goals of the client.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
Co-op Advertising
$96,000 SPENT WITH OVER 65 MEMBERS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM.
Goal: To generate increased tourism to the Mercer County area by leveraging VisitMercerCountyPA dollars with dollars of eligible local participants in cooperative marketing/ advertising programs that will favorably impact Mercer County as a whole.
To encourage member tourist related facilities in Mercer County to do more cooperative marketing in partnership with VisitMercerCountyPA.
Festival Marketing
As part of the marketing strategy of VisitMercerCountyPA, the agency provided maketing grants to a selection of festivals, fairs and large Tourism related events across the County. Our participation in marketing these fairs, festivals and large tourism related events will strengthen the agency’s brand image, help showcase the County to other areas and will encourage tourism visits to festivals/fairs/ large tourism related events.
18 festivals or large tourism events were assisted with marketing through this program.
Special Campaign
Diverse and Outstanding Tourism Assets are important to keep visitors interested in Mercer County as a Destination for travel. The Mercer County Tourism Attraction Development Grant (MCTAG) provides funds for the development and expansion of tourism attractions in Mercer County. For FY 2018/19 the Mercer County Tourism Attraction Grant funding was $100,000. Projects awarded this year included a launch site in Greenville for the Shenango River Trail, river walk developments in Sharon and Sharpsville, live theatre development in Grove City, a recreational/sport outdoor venue in Hermitage, a unique roof top restaurant expansion in Sharon, wedding and event barn development in South Pymatuning Twp. and amphitheater development in Greenville.
Major Projects Grant
MERCER COUNTY IS LOOKING FOR A “GAME CHANGER”
70 room nights sold
❖ 34 businesses redeemed over $23,000 in tourism bucks.
Mercer County Tourist Promotion Agency dba VisitMercerCountyPA will offer financial support toward the development of major tourism attractions in Mercer County. Two projects can be awarded up to $500,000 each over a 5 year span ($100,000/year max.) These projects must help Mercer County achieve the following goals:
❖ Provide the potential for significant new overnight stays in at least one area of the county where there is high hotel density.
❖ Assist Mercer County to become an all season destination.
Keystone Safari NEW ATTRACTIONS
Keystone Safari is projecting 200,000 visits to their site annually. Keystone Safari is a 130 acre park consisting of 3 primary attractions:
❖ The Safari: over 90 acres with 5 regional exhibits and more than 300 animals from around the world. Guests are taken on a 2 mile journey in open air safari buses to see the free roaming species.
❖ The Walk-Through Park: over 20 acres with several live animal exhibit areas, elevated trail and encounter areas, and a traditional barnyard area. Food can be purchased for several of the animals, including the Giraffe family. The signature 6,000 sqft gift shop is where guests enter and exit the park.
❖ The Zip Lines and Adventure Park: 2 sets of zip line courses in wooded areas of the park for guests 36”+ and 52”+. Also, Children’s playground areas.
Shenango Woodlands Wine Trail
Keystone Safari
Keystone Safari
Mercer County Wine & Brew Trail