Case Study: PA Sports' "20 Reasons Why" Campaign

PA Sports is a consortium of the state’s leading sports tourism organizations, with a collective of 14 member destinations representing communities across Pennsylvania. Their core mission is to attract and host sporting events at international, national, regional, and local levels. PA Sports member organizations include regional visitor bureaus, sports commissions, and event and tourism authorities. They operate as support partners for event planners, offering a diverse range of indoor and outdoor venues that prioritize accessibility, affordability, and an overall enjoyable experience for both participants and spectators.

PA Sports leverages its network of member destinations to offer a wide range of capabilities across the state. These regional partners bring a wealth of host venues to the table—everything from the versatile Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, which offers over one million square feet of event space, to specialized facilities such as the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Butler County or the York Expo Center. Through a coordinated approach, PA Sports promotes Pennsylvania as a premier sports-event destination—fostering economic development, enriching community life, and showcasing the Keystone State as a dynamic place to “visit, live, work, and play”.

A ROBUST BRAND AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

In 2024, PA Sports celebrated their 20th anniversary, and they wanted to celebrate. Partnering with Twothirty Media, they decided to create a social media campaign to celebrate the achievements of PA Sports members, while also increasing awareness in the sports events tourism industry of the types of events hosted in Pennsylvania.

In an effort to reach new potential clients and increase their visibility nationally, PA Sports partnered with Twothirty Media to create a Facebook campaign highlighting “20 reasons why PA is the best place to host a sporting event” to help celebrate the 20 years that PA Sports has been supporting, hosting, and promoting sports events in the Commonwealth.

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

The campaign included regularly scheduled Facebook page posts highlighting each of the 20 reasons with graphics and hashtag terms sourced for content and engagement. This content campaign resulted in:

• Increased Reach: 7,265 unique user accounts reached organically
• More Visits: contributed to 5,100 unique visitors to the page (an increase of 741.1%)
• Increased Interactions: 2,500 interactions with your content (likes, shares, comments)

In addition, a paid ad campaign comprised of six ad sets was developed to target users who mirrored the attendees of six tourism industry shows. They were developed with appealing and creative messaging that adjusted dynamically depending on Meta’s targeting data demographics of each user. The ad sets ran for 30 days each, surrounding the time of each event. The industry shows included in this effort were Sports Express, Connect Spring Marketplace, Sports ETA Symposium, and the Esports Travel Summit. The paid ads campaign resulted in:

• Increased Reach: The ads reached 39,234 unique account users
• Increased Page Followers: 3,100 new page followers
• More Website Traffic: The average number of visitors to www.SportsInPa.com increased from 1,925 per month to 3,928 per month.

The increased brand visibility on Meta has had lingering benefits for the PA Sports team members. Bold moves, such as establishing a strong brand presence online and specifically targeting industry networking events, have helped position Pennsylvania as a whole to be one of the leading destinations for sports events in 2026.

Partnering with Twothirty Media to build and implement custom, well-developed media campaigns can help leverage social interactions to elevate your digital brand presence. Contact us today to discover how we can harness the power of social media platforms for you!