The marketing team is gearing up for Pure Michigan advertising, ArtPrize and much more. Click here to read the details.

Future of Experience Grand Rapids

Be sure to watch The Future of Experience Grand Rapids Marketing video. The marketing team has been working hard behind-the-scenes to track analytics, curate content, and build buzz across all social mediums. In the beginning of the year a content and social strategy were launched- our strategy encompasses a variety of staff lead communicators and posters that are pushing content to spark engagement and to give our audience a constant message. This video will show you where we started and where we're heading! Take a look.

Pure Michigan

Our Pure MI television and radio fall media buy will begin the week of Sept 5. And as a reminder - this is the first time ever - we've had a GR campaign in Chicago!
Here is an outline of the plan:
Chicago 3 weeks - 9/5, 9/12, 9/19
Toledo - 4 weeks - 9/5, 9/12, 9/19, 9/28
Detroit - 3 weeks - 9/5, 9/12, 9/19
Traverse City - 4 weeks - 9/5, 9/12, 9/19, 9/28

BlogHer 2011- San Diego, CA

Kate Wiltzer, Multi-Media Communications Manager, attended the BlogHer Conference in San Diego in August. This conference is the world's largest conference for women in social media. Over 3,000 bloggers attended the conference and Kate was able to meet one-on-one with some of the most prestigious bloggers in the blogging community and tell them about Grand Rapids. It was a great learning experience and Kate was able to bring back some great content that will help in the marketing plan. Kate also ran a 5K at the conference and sported Experience Grand Rapids- she hit her best time so far in all the 5K's she has ran! 

Partner Updates

Experience Grand Rapids would like to welcome our newest partner, Plan Ahead Events. Plan Ahead Events is a full service event planning company specializing in corporate and non-profit events of all sizes. They handle everything from sales meetings, conferences and trade shows to grand openings and holiday parties. Their full list of services include a proprietary event Web site, online registration, speakers and entertainment, team-building activities, sponsorships, site evaluation, hotel reservations as well as attendee surveys and a post event evaluation. Corporate Social Responsibility is an integral part of each of their projects. Working with business' internal teams or independently they believe in a strategic meeting management approach, setting clear objectives and creating memorable events that exceed them. Learn more about Plan Ahead Events by visiting our Web site or by calling (616) 617-5028.  

ArtPrize Packages

Thinking about planning a trip to Grand Rapids for ArtPrize? Book your ArtPrize package in one of our participating hotels and receive a FREE ArtPrize bag including a directory book with discount coupons, map, two ArtPrize wristbands, and two Metro transportation cards. Shuttle transportation provided by The Rapid with the ArtPrize shuttle offering convenient access throughout the area.

Be sure to check out our Social Lounge, a virtual community where we link visitors to social channels like, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flicker. While exploring our Social Lounge, discover the Twitter Feed to follow the ArtPrize hashtag, #ArtPrize, to see what other people are saying about ArtPrize. After you have explored ArtPrize, make sure to come back and share all about your visit!

EXGR Web site

Overall visitation to ExperienceGR.com has increased by 43% over August 2010 - this is primarily due to the fact that we weren't running pay-per-clicks (PPC) last year. Pageviews have increased by 34% over last year. Organic search engine traffic increased by 27% during that time frame. Search traffic has increased by 23% for the keyword "grand rapids", sending 4,239 visits this year compared to 3,438 last year. Restaurant-related search keywords are up by 232%, sending 2,564 visits in August. This is good news as we promote Restaurant Week in November.