By Bruce Ross, WWA Executive Director
Most sponsor spotlights deal with product manufacturers, so this is probably my first spotlight about a service provider, and certainly my first about a social media content provider. But I was so impressed with Swift Waters that I had to share the observations I developed over a year as part of the EXPO work-up.
Shawn Gibbons and Connie Markham, co-inspirators behind Swift Waters.
Shawn Gibbons and Connie Markham are the co-inspirators behind Swift Waters, a “lifestyle marketing influencer.” That means, I think, they tell cool stories about cool people who live an active outdoors lifestyle in order to help their clients attract and retain customers. They did just that for the recent Waterfowl Hunters EXPO!
Although we had zero dollars dedicated to the EXPO for marketing, Shawn and Connie volunteered over a year ago to provide Facebook marketing for this start-up venture. Because “they want[ed] to be a part of making the EXPO a success” for the NexGen of Wisconsin’s waterfowlers. Nice.
Look through their website and you’ll see phrases like “ambassador management”, “access to advance influencers” and “accelerated engagement”. Hmm… not sure what any of that means, but like the WWII general who knew nothing about logistics, I wanted it. And Swift Waters brought it. And as a result, we well exceeded our attendance and revenue goals. Here’s some of what they did:
- Established EXPO social media presence: Created Facebook page, engaged likely influencers, and developed visually appealing, accurate, and ultimately, engaging posts.
- Recognized Sponsors: They developed content for Sponsorship related to the EXPO, then designed a detailed posting schedule so that we could promise – and have confidence in meeting those promises – sponsor recognition. This effort, especially in an inaugural year, was important to early EXPO solvency.
- Marketed EXPO activities: Remember, this was an inaugural effort; we were selling an idea more than an existing product. So given just a bare list of presenters and activities, they reached out to those presenters to create content, distilled it into engaging material, and created an EXPO marketing drumbeat that crescendos just before the event. This included the design of FB raffles and contests that would create a buzz, with prizes they solicited from the exhibitors on their own initiative.
- Provided management reports: With easy-to-understand graphics, they provided monthly updates on how our efforts were faring – what worked, and what didn’t and overall follower and engagement growth. Early on, this was all organic, and in the last two months, when we threw a few (very few) dollars towards paid FB advertising, they managed that effort for maximum bang per buck.
- Contributed to day-of EXPO excitement: During the event itself, with their trusty yellow lab Chloe at their side, Shawn and Connie held hourly raffle drawings, streamed interviews of exhibitors and presenters on Facebook Live, and kept our social media presence very active throughout the event.
- Smartly closed out the EXPO: Even with the EXPO in the rear-view mirror, Shawn and Connie kept our page active to thank attendees, presenters, sponsors and exhibitors, all while collecting feedback from them for next year improvements.
Check out their EXPO work here and here – you’ll be impressed.
Shawn and Connie did all this autonomously… Given that there were so many other details confronting EXPO leaders, this freed up management time while ensuring the ultimate event make-or-break of attendance was well-tended.
Result:
- The EXPO nearly tripled attendance and revenue goals, and
- Our vendors, sponsors and attendees say they’ll be back again next year!”