This summer, two family-based social media influencers from Chicago spent two different weekends in Northwest Indiana as part of a marketing campaign to attract tourism.
The influencers took their families to different locations, including Edge Adventures in Crown Point, Albanese Candy Factory in Hobart and the Mascot Hall of Fame in Whiting, according to a Thursday presentation to the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority Board of Directors.
Both influencers posted pictures of their trip on social media and wrote blog posts, which generated thousands of impressions, according to the presentation.
The SSCVA partnered with the Indiana Office of Tourism Development for a Chicago-based advertising campaign, which included digital marketing, cable and television advertisement and billboards, said Erika Dahl, director of communications for the SSCVA.
The authority’s board approved $35,000 to partner on the marketing campaign, which lasted from roughly April to September, Dahl said. Some portions of the campaign, billboards for example, were only in place for shorter periods of time, she said.
The Indiana Office of Tourism Development matched the authority’s funds for the campaign, which is why the authority was able to advertise in the Chicago market, she said.
“It’s really hard to penetrate the Chicago area,” Dahl said. “This was a way to expand our marketing dollars.”
Compared to other agencies that partnered with the state tourism department, the SSCVA was “most receptive” based on social media clicks and impressions, Dahl said.
“We were very happy. We’ve never really been able to advertise in Chicago,” Dahl said.
Though it’s hard to track how successful billboard or television advertisements are, influencers and social media posts are powerful tools in advertising because that information “live(s) in a cloud forever,” Dahl said. Social media data can be tracked, she said.
“That’s why a social media campaign is so important for organizations like us because we can track click-through impressions,” Dahl said.
While the most recent advertising campaign focused on Chicago, Dahl said she has heard from the state tourism department that, based on social media and other data, people who live in Nashville have shown an increased interest in visiting Indiana.
In the future, Dahl said the visitors authority will consider expanding its advertising campaign to Nashville.
Also at the meeting, tourists or residents won’t be able to see the collection of 1930s bank robber John Dillinger memorabilia that was once housed inside Crown Point’s John Dillinger Museum at the old Lake County Courthouse anytime soon, said Speros Batistatos, president and CEO of the SSCVA.
The content in the museum has been in storage since the museum closed in 2017, Batistatos said. There are no plans to open a new museum, he said.
“Dillinger is going to stay in mothballs for a while,” Batistatos said.
During public comment at the end of the meeting, Hammond City Council President Robert Markovich, D-At large, raised concerns about what he said is the board’s lack of transparency.
“We treat everything as public information,” Batistatos said.
Markovich also complained that a September request from his office for a list of board members, their occupations and term dates was treated as a Freedom of Information Act request.
Dahl said she received the request and followed state law in providing information.
Markovich also demanded an apology from SSCVA Board of Directors Chairman Andy Qunell after a social media meme criticizing Markovich was created and shared based on a comment Qunell allegedly made on the radio.
