The Big E is the largest state fair in the Eastern U.S. and widely considered a great American state fair. As the nation’s only six-state fair, it’s emblematic of the big flavors, big rides, big arts showcase, big farm presence—big everything—that 1,000,000 visitors could expect during The Big E’s peak attendance years.
At one point, though, attendance growth stalled. To draw new visitors and stay on top, The Big E needed an agency fluent in state fair marketing and comfortable promoting the wide range of attractions that draw tourists to the fairground.
That’s why they turned to Mascola Group.
To create top-notch state fair advertising, we did our homework first. Through our Core User Study, we discovered that audiences don’t see The Big E as just one “E”. Instead, they look at the great American state fair as many little “E”s—and each one has a favorite, including food, entertainment, shopping, agriculture, New England traditions and even people-watching.
With this information in hand, we developed a strategy to provide The Big E with state fair marketing that spoke personally to the groups of personas we identified. Because this type of advertising is marketing tourist attractions that run for a limited time each year, we also made noise with The Big E Cream Puff Express, a PR campaign that promoted the fair’s signature snack at media outlets throughout New England. Finally, our designers created Chick-E, a lovable mascot that provides recognizable branding for visitors across touchpoints.
The results of our state fair advertising campaigns for The Big E have been staggering. Since partnering with Mascola Group, this great American state fair has enjoyed back-to-back record-breaking years for attendance: almost 2,000,000 visitors in just 17 days.
Results for our PR efforts has been amazing too. In addition to our state fair advertising campaigns 2023, The Big E Cream Puff Express PR effort generated more than 500,000 organic impressions in the campaign’s first two days. It also earned appearances on radio, television and social outlets with millions of followers—both in Connecticut and nationwide.
That’s the power of state fair marketing done by an agency partner with strategic, paid media and creative expertise.
Are you ready to start marketing tourist attractions and state fairs for your community?
