French/West/Vaughan (FWV), one of the nation’s largest independently-owned public relations, advertising and digital marketing agencies, has been selected by the Greenville-Pitt County Convention & Visitors Bureau (Visit Greenville, NC) as its advertising agency of record. This partnership expands FWV’s roster of clients within its dedicated Travel & Tourism practice, currently the 10th largest in the U.S., according to O’Dwyers.
Visit Greenville, NC’s mission is to foster an environment of superior travel and tourism experiences throughout Greenville and surrounding Pitt County. According to Visit North Carolina, domestic visitors to and within Pitt County spent $246.72 million in 2017, an increase of 6.62% from $231.40 million in 2016. Pitt County experienced the 4th largest increase in visitor spending out of all of North Carolina’s 100 counties in 2017.
FWV will collaborate with Visit Greenville, NC on the development of a new creative campaign for leisure audiences geared toward driving overnight visitors to the area from outside of Pitt County, along with campaigns targeting meeting planners and sports events organizers. FWV will also handle media planning and buying duties for all three audiences.
“Visit Greenville, NC looks forward to working with French/West/Vaughn as part of our evolving destination marketing strategy to educate travelers, along with meeting and sporting event planners about the incredible growth and transition taking place in Greenville and Pitt County,” stated Andrew Schmidt, Executive Director of Visit Greenville, NC. “French/West/Vaughn will play an instrumental part in helping achieve Visit Greenville, NC’s mission of becoming a premier destination in the Southeast.”
Currently the 11th most populous city in North Carolina, Greenville is a flourishing metropolitan city in the heart of Pitt County. It boasts a growing university-medical community and is home to East Carolina University and Vidant Medical Center. Greenville is also an accommodating event and leisure destination with an expanded Greenville Convention Center Campus and a vibrant Uptown Greenville District with its own diverse art, music, food and festival scene featuring an increasing number of unique, locally owned businesses, galleries, shops and restaurants. The city is located along the beautiful Tar River in Eastern North Carolina’s Inner Banks, approximately 85 miles east of the state capital of Raleigh and 87 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean.
“Greenville is a thriving cultural, educational and medical hub of Eastern North Carolina,” said FWV Principal and COO Natalie Best. “Our Travel & Tourism team is excited to work on spreading the word and building a campaign to support travel and tourism to the area.As fellow North Carolinians, we are honored Visit Greenville, NC has selected us to help promote Greenville and Pitt County to audiences across North Carolina and beyond.”