$3.3 Million and Counting

Being named the Tastiest Town in the South has some serious economic power.  In the content marketing world, a big objective is to get recognition by others of the things that a product or brand has to offer.  That happened in spades with the announcement that Durham had earned this distinction.

What does it mean, in dollars and cents?  "Aside from all the potential visitor traffic that will come as a result of being exposed to Durham as a food destination, we have to look at what it would have cost us to buy this amount of exposure," said Shelly Green, President and CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau.  DCVB is Durham's official marketing agency and was the driving force behind winning the title. "It would have cost us $3.3 million," she added.

And counting, apparently.

"Every time we talk about this, that number grows," said Sam Poley who handles marketing for DCVB. "That's why we worked so hard to get people aware that winning this was important.  Titles are great, but value like this is simply undeniable, and we need to capture opportunities like this whenever they arise.  We hope that this kind of statistic will help engender support for such efforts in the future among our fans, residents, and business owners," he added.

At last count, more than 41 million impressions had been made by the more than 50 television broadcasts, well over 100 printed and web posted articles about the accolade.

DCVB's use of social media was key in winning, according to representatives from Southern Living Magazine.  To that end, DCVB has begun to use the hashtag #DurhamIsTastiest! and encourages everyone to tag images on Instagram and Tweets to help others know in real time what is happening on Durham's highly-acclaimed food landscape.