Engaging new audiences and enhancing the economy of North Carolina
05.11.2011
In:
Energy / Infrastructure,
Interactive
The North Carolina State Ports Authority (NCSPA) encompasses the seaports of Wilmington and Morehead City, plus inland terminals in Charlotte and the Piedmont Triad. Its audience is two-fold, with one part consisting of logistics managers and shipping agents and the other being economic developers, business owners, chambers of commerce and legislators. NCSPA’s mission is to enhance the economyof North Carolina by providing access to the global shipping marketplace. To be successful, NCSPA must continue to increase business and create jobs throughout the state.
The NCSPA came to Capstrat with a complicated business challenge in a demanding political environment. With the Panama Canal expansion set to be complete in 2014, larger ships will become the standard for ocean shipping causing Wilmington and Morehead City ports to look at expansion and harbor improvement needs to guarantee their long-term success. To become more competitive, NCSPA needed to increase business, awareness and support throughout the state.
NCSPA contacted Capstrat to help further educate the business community, and build up long-term support and awareness around the Ports. Through research, we determined the best way to positively affect NCSPA’s short- and long-term goals was to target three key groups of stakeholders in the state: chambers of commerce, economic developers and business leaders. By communicating the Ports’ key benefits to these audiences, we could not only help increase NCSPA’s current business, but also build a strong foundation of support for future projects.
We needed to communicate just how important the Ports are to our entire state – that these aren’t just Wilmington’s and Morehead City’s Ports; they’re everyone’s Ports. We accomplished this by taking four photos of inland locations – Charlotte, Raleigh, Asheville and Duplin County – and making them appear to be coastal cities. This drove home the point that, economically speaking, every city in North Carolina is a port city. These images were used as the centerpieces of NCSPA’s new microsite, ourncports.com, alongside videos and case studies from NC Ports customers reinforcing the Ports’ contribution and importance to the state.
To drive traffic to the site, we placed banners on other sites we knew economic developers and business owners were visiting regularly, which included online business journals and major news sites throughout the state. We tailored relevant banner visuals to each region (running the “Port of Raleigh” banner on the News & Observer home page, for example), knowing that the unexpected twists on familiar scenes would attract more clicks. We also used the images and website look and feel to create a presentation that is being given by NCSPA employees to target audiences across the state.
We measured traffic to ourncports.com and continue to provide regular analytics reports. Since launch, we’ve decreased the bounce rate by nearly 10 percent through optimization, meaning many visitors are staying on the site to watch videos and read case studies. Traffic has increased steadily despite featuring only a few banners in the past several weeks. There also has been a 400 percent increase from referring traffic, which continues to improve, since the site launched.
