Marketing & Communications

Destination advertising

With the Greater Raleigh CVB's advertising and marketing communications agency of record, Avenir Bold, continued to expand as well as optimize year-over-year a robust ad plan with leisure visitor, meeting group and sports event-planning markets that especially leveraged various new video ads. Avenir Bold placements drove the following results:

• 53 million impressions
• $27 million in estimated economic impact from hotel bookings, reported by data partner Adara (result of video advertising through a Spectrum/Adara partnership program)
• 64:1 return on ad spend via Adara (for context, 8-10:1 is considered excellent)
• $23 million in in-market spending tracked by Epsilon (native advertising)
• $242:1 return on ad spend via Epsilon
   

Advertising themes 

With Avenir Bold, continued the "Let's Make It Happen" leisure marketing campaign through 2024, which tied together destination pillars, video ad scripts and professional actors under a straightforward call-to-action around trip planning; also applied this theme to Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance (GRSA) ad media, supporting consideration of Wake County with sports event planners. In Jan. 2025, launched the new "We're Full of Ideas" leisure marketing campaign, with Visit Raleigh, alongside passionate locals, sharing an endless supply of unique and innovative things to do and dining ideas. Continued to run the "Nobody Out-Nerds Raleigh" meeting professional-targeted campaign, letting planners know that their convention attendees can "fully embrace and celebrate their inner nerds in a place where like-minded folks totally get it."

Official tourism website and insider content

Exceeded the goal for website users and served destination information to 2.8 million users during the year. The department’s ongoing content marketing efforts continue to stimulate most site traffic, with traditional advertising and paid search efforts attracting additional new and repeat users.

The Bureau continued with a content marketing strategy that puts a heavy emphasis on connecting with consumers via insider articles published to visitRaleigh.com. This content provides trip inspiration designed to be shared with friends and family, helps answer frequently asked questions about visiting the Raleigh area and heightens the Bureau’s reputation as the official source of tourism information in Raleigh, N.C. 

Distributed approximately 75 published pieces of content via owned (website, email) and non-owned (social media, native ads etc.) marketing channels, attracting one million users during 2024-2025 fiscal year. This content also played a significant role in SEO efforts website-wide.

Social media marketing

Social media continued to evolve quickly during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

On Facebook, the Bureau published content from visitRaleigh.com with the aim to drive users to the website. During the most recent fiscal year, the @visitRaleigh Facebook account generated 560,000 link clicks to visitRaleigh.com after earning a record 31.2 million total impressions—including more than 11 million video views. The @visitRaleigh Facebook account grew at its fastest rate ever, jumping from 89,000 to 125,000 followers during the year.

On Instagram, short-form video content is now a top way that audiences consume travel content and then share trip ideas with others. The Bureau published (or co-published, in partnership with hospitality partners and third-party content creators) 277 times to Instagram and earned a total of 21 million video plays during the fiscal year. Instagram posts from @visitRaleigh were shared by users more than 525,000 times during this period, a 31% increase over the Bureau's previous high. The @visitRaleigh Instagram account also grew at its fastest rate ever, growing from 72,000 to 103,000 followers during the year.

Across these two platforms the Bureau earned a record 53.8 million total impressions and surpassed a new KPI in its Business Plan that measures total Facebook impressions plus Instagram video views and engagements.
 

Passports and official guides 

For 2025, continued the mobile-exclusive Raleigh Beer Trail program, offering a digital Passport with GPS-confirmed check-ins at the Raleigh area's 40+ breweries and integrating electronic submissions for prize redemption. Continued annual promotional efforts for the trail (as well as the Outdoor Mural Trail, created and maintained by the CVB's Destination Data, Technology and AI Department). Again with custom-publishing partner Compass Media, printed 80,000 copies of the Official Visitors Guide to Raleigh, Cary and Wake County for distribution during 2025.

Group market content

• The department continued to produce articles for meeting and sports event planners, including destination news, meeting district-focused articles (for the meetings market), features on event sites and more as part of the content marketing strategy 
• Supported the Sales and Sports Marketing Departments' efforts through targeted email marketing campaigns, including Sports Watch and Meetings Watch, enhancing engagement with key audiences
• Continued to assist Sales and Sports Marketing Departments with social media content creation and management
• Continued to manage content in the Bureau's SendSites bid book preparation and distribution platform and helped prepare several high-profile event bids
• Utilizing the SendSites platform, developed DIY kits for the Destination Services Department to enable Tier 3 and 4 groups (including weddings, reunions and other small events) to easily discover and access event planning and attendance promotion tools offered by the Greater Raleigh CVB
• Launched the aforementioned, new meetings and conventions market campaign, "Nobody Out-Nerds Raleigh," aligning advertising efforts with the destination's unique strengths
• Completed outreach to meeting hotel sales staff in the area's meeting districts to bring more awareness to visitRaleigh.com content that can be helpful in sales and marketing efforts
• Assisted Sales and Destination Services teams in pre- and post-promotions for their key Bureau-hosted events, including the Meeting Professionals Summit, the Event Service Provider & Venue Summit and Celebrate Services Day
• Helped the Sales team achieve a successful Global Meetings Industry Day in April 2025, providing the team with sharable content to highlight the event's significance
• The Bureau won a Platinum N.C. Travel Industry Association Tourism Achievement Award in the Convention Marketing category for our illustrated Sales tradeshow booth (see an example of the booth setup here).
• Also won a Platinum N.C. Travel Industry Association Tourism Achievement Award in the Group Visitors category for GRSA's sports destination overview video
• Began work with vendor STAR on an immersive, interactive 10' x 20' Sales tradeshow booth for major industry shows across the country in the 2025-2026 fiscal year
   

Awards and professional development

• At the N.C. Tourism Leadership Conference, Dec. 4-5, 2024,  brought home four Tourism Achievement Awards, including the year's Best of Show Award; also received Platinum for our 2023-2024 "Let's Make It Happen" leisure campaign video advertising in the Leisure Marketing category and, as mentioned above, Platinum for our illustrated Sales tradeshow booth and Platinum for GRSA's sports destination overview video.
• Alongside partner People-First Tourism and film production company Swift Creek Media, received a Gold Telly Award (the highest honor in the awards program) in the "General: Arts & Culture - Non-Broadcast" category for the video "Sisterhood of the Skyline: Discover Hyperlocal Arts Experiences in Raleigh, N.C."
• Alongside creative agency Avenir Bold, received a Bronze Telly Award in the "General: Travel & Tourism - Online Commercials" category for this video advertisement, which supported the 2023-2024 "Let's Make It Happen" leisure tourism campaign.
• Marketing manager Andrew H. Baker, CGSP^®, completed the Southeast Tourism Society's Marketing College as a certified Travel Marketing Professional and a Festival and Events Professional in Sept. 2024. He also graduated from the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Raleigh Program in June 2025.