You’re in a position to support an entire network of small businesses… how do you level them up fast?
Portland’s official destination marketing organization has a deep connection with the local businesses that serve tourism, meetings, and conventions.
The challenge: Travel Portland needed to increase value for its local business partners while also helping small businesses level up their marketing game in order to be showcased globally.
Pregame started by working with the Partnership Team to redesign the local business membership and sponsorship programs. We recognized the extraordinary value they were providing to their local business members, but the membership benefits didn’t fully capture the scope. Our update to the membership benefits and tiers highlighted more opportunities for local business.
We then designed and implemented a year-long curriculum of marketing and PR workshops Portland’s parks, hotels, restaurants, shops, tour companies, wineries, makers, and more. Both owners and marketers were welcome to attend on behalf of their organization.
“Pregame was instrumental in guiding our new business engagement program with our tourism stakeholders. They worked with our team to design a curriculum that was timely and relevant for our business partners.
We now have so many testimonials from partners expressing how the workshops designed by Pregame have created so many customer successes. Pregame feels like an extension of our team. Game on.”
– Tamara Kennedy, VP Community Relations, Travel Portland
Some of these businesses were already great storytellers, making it easy for Travel Portland to promote them to visitors. But most businesses needed help with their marketing, as well as accountability for implementation. We further divided the workshops into two levels so all needs would be met: marketing essentials and next-level marketing.
The marketing and PR series was a success with 100+ businesses participating in Pregame workshops. Included in these workshops were templates with Pro Tips giving guidance on implementation, systems, and accountability.
