Case Study – DBA Athens, TN

Case Study – DBA Athens, TN

Athens DBA – Digital Advertising Campaign 2016

The Downtown Business Association of Athens, TN hosts a wide variety of business owners who wish to increase traffic to the historic downtown area. Each year the DBA uses funds to help advertise the association and businesses within. After a history of advertising with traditional media such as newsprint, radio, and billboard, the DBA was looking for a new means of promoting with a more frugal budget. Another goal of the DBA was to begin moving towards the trend of digital marketing and encourage their members to begin implementing digital methods into their marketing mix.
The DBA of Athens is located in the heart of McMinn county, a small county with a population of roughly 50,000 inhabitants. Due to Athens distance away from the nearest television station, it is not financially practical for most businesses to advertise through broadcast because of the over representation of a non-local market. The target market of the DBA consists of the local community of the McMinn county area. Due to the variety of businesses within the DBA the key demographics vary by gender and age.
To maximize the reach of the campaign and to optimize the amount of relevant views, the DBA elected to use targeted video ads via boosted Facebook posts from their official page. Each month, Bombshell Media worked to create a video advertisement featuring three businesses from the DBA who shared similar target markets. These ads were promoted using Facebook’s builtin targeting features which allowed them to select their audience by location, gender, age, and  interests. The ads were designed to showcase the featured businesses of the month as well as to promote the Downtown Business Association.
After the course of 7 months, the DBA’s video campaign received over 50,000 views in total. Along with the increase in traffic, during that period of time, the DBA’s official Facebook page grew in followers by over 400 likes, almost doubling the existing fan base. Through this campaign, 19 featured businesses were able to witness, first hand, the strength and accuracy, as well as the cost effectiveness, of a video advertising campaign using the tools available through social media and the internet.