Winner: Visit Philadelphia - Visit Philly Snapchat
Over the years, VISIT PHILADELPHIA—known to social media fans and followers as Visit Philly—has made a name for itself as a social media pioneer, leading the destination marketing industry in emerging platforms. Snapchat presented an exciting new territory that was largely untapped by the travel industry, according to a recent report from Adweek.
Snapchat’s popularity lies in the fact that it’s informal, unpolished and authentic. It’s a truly social platform that isn’t measured by conversion rates or click-throughs. Visit Philly capitalized on the platform’s amazing relationship-building capabilities because they wanted to humanize their brand.
Since launching its account in mid-June, Visit Philly’s Snapchat account has produced 2-3 stories per week. Each individual story has a defined focus with a clear start and finish. Visit Philly's director of social media meets with its video producer weekly to determine which events and locations should be featured. The schedule incorporates different types of stories so as not to become repetitive—for example, on Monday the story may feature a new museum exhibit, and on Wednesday it would cover a live scavenger hunt.
Visit Philly’s video producer goes out into the field to host and produce the complete story by adding emojis, filters and effects, getting real-time feedback from the director of social media. After each story, the team discusses what worked well and what needs improvement before collecting 24-hour metrics.
Since officially launching the account on June 16, 2016, Visit Philly has tripled its views per story, with one recent story reaching 819 views; it also had a total of 4,839 complete story views in a three week period.
Honorable Mentions:
- Bauserman Group - 8 Seconds at a Time: Snapchat Marketing for the Reno Rodeo
- Hawkins International Public Relations - InterContinental New York Barclay Snapchat Takeover with Condé Nast Traveler
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. - 4th of July Snapchat Story, Chase Freedom Unlimited
- Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau - Snapchat Story Begins
- R&R Partners - Las Vegas launches official Snapchat channel with DJ Khaled
- W Hotels x Baron Von Fancy PRIDE Snapchat Filters