Grey County BGS Cycling Project Project Update – November 1, 2013

Project Components Consumer Research Develop New Routes Cycling Safety Message Cycle Tourism Promotion Marketing/Advertising

Cycling Safety Message Share The Road magnets – 2880 ordered for project (in addition to 2,000 pre-project) 1,000 distributed over summer at events, through OPP 1,000 given to Centurion participants (all C25 entrants - 400) 600 left : Boomer show, Spring Bike show

Cycling Safety Message Radio Messaging Shawn Everitt - Blue mountains has existing Share The Road program Determined to use OPP & Grey County Warden in 2 sets of ads – cyclists, motorists re. cycling, and ad re. farm vehicles Saturation of Grey County listening area for week before Centurion and up to Thanksgiving, including push out on Facebook & Twitter.

Cycle Tourism Promotion Inventory of Grey County cycling events Next Steps: Promoting Events, Packaging/Expanding guided tour offering - Toronto Bike Show Event NameDateLocationWebsite Centurion Blue MountainSept 13-15, 2013Blue Mountain Villagehttp:// PedalFestJuly 12-14, 2013Blue Mountain Villagehttp:// Tuesday Night Downhill SeriesJuly 16 - Aug 13, 2013Blue Mountain Villagehttp:// Manitoulin PassageJune 8-9, 2013Tobermory - Manitoulin Islandhttp:// Owen Sound Cycling Club Rides3-4 per weekVarious locationshttp:// Collingwood Cycling ClubVery few publicVarious locations upcoming-events/ Saugeen Tri ClubVery few publicVarious locationshttp://saugeentriclub.com/?cat=6 Bruce Peninsula Adventure RaceAugust 10, 2013Bruce Peninsulahttp://

Marketing/Advertising Research dictated a focus more on avids until leisure cycling product better developed Online banner ads purchased just before Centurion Social media campaign initiated mid-September with Facebook ads & sponsored posts and LinkedIn ads

Online Banner Ads Purchased online banner ads to run for 4 weeks starting mid-September through mid- October. Womenscycling.ca – 250 x 250 box Pedalmag.com – 160 x 468 skyscraper Stats to date: (as of October 31, 2013)  75 clicks from Womenscycling.ca  55 clicks from Pedalmag.com

Pedalmag.com

Womenscycling.ca

Facebook Advertising We spent $ across 3 campaigns, fairly evenly distributed, resulting in 2913 ad clicks at an average cost of $0.40 per click and 387 Sponsored Stories clicks. Average CTR (click-through rate) to date of 1.08%, higher than tourism industry average of 0.26% for Facebook ads and 1.15% for Sponsored Stories. Ads have driven 307 new Page Likes for Grey County Tourism – which brought us up over the 1000 likes threshold! 1481 clicks resulting in a direct website visit, according to Google Analytics as of October 31, 2013.

Facebook Targeting Campaign 1 Target Audience: Men & women in KW, GTA, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Barrie; between 34 & 64; who like precise interest #cycling (high intent) = 54,000 people Results: resonating well with men ages and 45-54, who account for 30.4 and 24.6% of ad clicks, respectively.

Facebook Targeting Campaign 2 Target Audience: Men & women in KW; between 34 & 64; who like broad interest Outdoor Fitness Activities (lower intent, broader audience) = 138,000 people. Results: almost equally popular with men and women in the age range, who together account for 52.5% of ad clicks. Campaign 3 Target Audience: Women only (targets women only as this was identified as an opportunity for growth) in Ontario between 24-64; who like precise interest #cycling = 122,000 Results: the and age range are most engaged, accounting for over 65% of ad clicks.

Facebook Targeting Facebook provides insighst into the types of people reached during campaign which may be helpful in future campaigns: Men accounted for 1115 clicks, women clicking 2112 times. Of 3300, the remaining clickers have not revealed their gender to Facebook. It cost an average of $4.40 to reach 1000 male Facebook users (indicated as CPM). Note, these are not males who clicked, but all male Facebook users who saw your ads. In comparison, it cost $4.61 to reach each 1000 female users. Men and women over the age of 65 were in short supply during this campaign; approximately 400 of each were reached over the month.

Sponsored Posts On Sept. 26 & Oct. 3, we sponsored posts, targeting people who are NOT already connected to the Grey County Tourism page & are between the ages of 20 – 65 in Toronto, Orangeville, Brampton, Mississauga, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton, Barrie & Vaughan. This generated most of the new “likes” to our page at a cost of $0.31 per engagement. We will continue to engage them moving forward, even after the campaign has ended.

LinkedIn Advertising Tested some LinkedIn ads as they have been showing great results for other businesses. Decided to take down the LinkedIn ads after 2 weeks & focus on Facebook as the results weren’t great, but we did targets some great people. The strategy here was to “influence the influencers”, who have access to the market you're trying to reach.

Visitgrey.ca/On Road Cycling Since campaign start, traffic to the on-road cycling page of our website has increased significantly from the same period with 1923 visits compared to 78 visits in This makes it our 2 nd most visited page next to the homepage.

Next steps Continuous monitoring and posting on our social media sites, including cycling content when applicable. Spend remaining budget or reserve for Spring 2014?