Case Study – Nebraska State Fair 2022

Intro:

When IdeaBank Marketing joined forces with the Nebraska State Fair in the spring of 2022 to start planning the marketing for the 2022 State Fair, we started by identifying who the target audiences would be, determining what messages each would need to hear to be prompted to attend and finding where those messages would be placed to reach each target. We developed the plan, then attacked the creative and placement. Throughout the entire time we were meeting with the State Fair team to learn more about how we could help them reach their goals. In the end, the 2022 Nebraska State Fair was a huge success.

Goals:

1. Increase awareness and attendance among identified personas.
2. Increase marketing of all ticketed events to generate 20,000 concert and 2,500 "dirt event" tickets sold.
3. Get 300,000 people to attend the fair.

Strategy:

In developing the goals for 2022, we created key personas to develop messages and defined target audiences. These were determined based on best potential ROI. In doing this, we also studied past performance and current economic and social climates to determine what would be best case scenarios and realistic targets. 

We aggressively targeted our marketing messages to these personas, through advanced demographic and geographic targeting. Lining up the messages to the personas in the right geographic areas helped us reduce spend and increase return. 

Tactics:

Once we determined who to target, we developed a plan for where to reach them. We used a combination of these channels to reach each target persona in multiple ways.

Results:

• Overall attendance increase of 8% over 2021
• Overall revenue increase of $1M over 2021
• Overall reach on Facebook up 47% over 2021
• 20,457 concert tickets and 3,576 dirt event tickets sold.
• 287,367 people attended the fair.

Statewide Reach & Revenue:

We generated sales from all 93 counties in Nebraska (not the case in 2021). We also had increased revenue from all but 7 counties over 2021. 

Hall County increased revenue over 2021 by 8.55%. In the rest of the Central Region, revenue increases ranged from 54% in Harlan County up to a whopping 322% in Nuckolls County.

The average per capita spend in Hall County (overall revenue/county population) was $7.75, up from $7.14 in 2021. In all, 28 counties had a per capita spend of more than $1. Only eight counties had a per capita spend of under 10¢.

“IdeaBank wasn’t a vendor. They weren’t a partner. They truly became an extension of our team. Together we planned, and they always executed their end. The results were fantastic. The open communication and shared vision are unlike any agency I’ve worked with before.”

– Ray Massie, Nebraska State Fair Director of Marketing