VISIT PHILADELPHIA builds Philadelphia's economy and image through destination marketing that increases the number of visitors, the number of nights they stay and the number of things they do.
Over the past few years, we've recognized an increasingly popular imagery trend on social media—people wanting to travel to and explore new places based on photographs they've seen on social networks.
Because of the increasing visual trend and our ongoing effort to bring travelers to Philadelphia, we organized our first-ever Instagram Influencer Trip, bringing seven prolific Instagrammers from New York City (each with 25,000-100,000 Instagram followers) to Philadelphia for a weekend filled with photogenic locations, iconic attractions and delicious local food.
VISIT PHILADELPHIA utilized these Instagram influencers' followings to help us promote Philadelphia as a weekend getaway less than two hours away from New York City and to show Philadelphia as a cool destination that's Instagram-ready thanks to stunning views, interesting spaces and beloved icons. It's easy to get to, easy to get around and easy to love.
In the first 48 hours, 14 photos of Philadelphia were uploaded by the seven Instagrammers, generating 725,000 impressions. A few weeks after the trip, 48 photos of Philly had been uploaded, generating 2.2 million impressions.
VISIT PHILADELPHIA's Instagram Press Trip achieved three main marketing objectives:
1. Promoted Philadelphia as an accessible weekend getaway less than two hours away from New York City—Philadelphia's top feeder market.
2. Introduced out of town audiences to Philadelphia by leveraging influential photographers' social networks.
3. Showed Philadelphia as a photogenic destination.
To accomplish all this, we compiled an extensive list of potential NYC Instagrammers. Many New York City Instagrammers have large followings of fans that trust their recommendations and draw inspiration from their work and travels. The word-of-mouth power of sharing beautiful or interesting images of our city is something we continuously take into account.
We narrowed down the list based on number of followers, amount of engagement and types of photos and contacted Instagrammers via email with a trip explanation.
We researched and reserved photogenic hotels, restaurants, attractions and transportation options. We rented the PHLASH, a local tourism loop bus that takes people to key attractions, for private transport for two days. Most importantly, we contacted attractions to arrange exclusive, private access tours: private guided tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; exclusive access to the top of the Comcast Center, Philly's tallest skyscraper; private access to Eastern State Penitentiary cellblocks; exclusive access to Independence Hall before the historic site opened for the day.
Prior to the trip, we sent the weekend itinerary, complete with sites' Instagram and Twitter handles, hashtags and brief descriptions for caption inspiration.
Our first-ever Instagram Press Trip was a great success. The seven Instagrammers had 338,000 followers combined, and to this day, the Instagrammers continue to upload photos from the trip and tag Visit Philly's call-to-action hashtag #visitphilly and @visitphilly Instagram handle. One Instagrammer has already returned to Philadelphia since the trip in June.
Two Instagrammers blogged about the experience on their personal websites and linked to the Visit Philly Instagram page, and several Instagrammers tweeted their photos and tagged the Visit Philly Twitter account.
Hundreds of the Instagrammers' followers commented on the Philadelphia photos, admiring the locations and wanting to visit the city, and 12 of the 15 most-liked Instagram photos of all time containing the #visitphilly hashtag belong to three of the Instagrammers on the trip.
