Georgia National Fair

In the mid-1980s, the newly created Georgia Agricultural Exposition Authority (GAEA) envisioned bringing a state-owned, statewide agricultural fair to Georgia. Their overarching goal was to provide a space for youth organizations, agricultural organizations, and others to participate in exhibitions, competitions, presentations, promotions, and celebrations centered around various facets of Georgia’s agriculture and agribusiness.

In 1990, the GAEA achieved its vision with the first-annual Georgia National Fair, held October 5-13 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter in Perry, Georgia. Apart from 2020, the Fair has remained a yearly tradition ever since and has grown into an eleven-day event that brings in vendors and visitors from across the state, southeastern region, and even the nation.

Every October, fairgoers can expect activities and events that pique any interest, including:

When the Georgia National Fair’s marketing team first contacted M&R Marketing, it sought assistance with social media management for their 2022 Fair season. The Fair’s Facebook and Instagram accounts needed some hands-on MLC (marketing-loving care) to create on each platform an engaging, trendy, up-to-date presence leading up to the 2022 Fair and throughout the 11-day event.

The marketing team also expressed interest in creating eNewsletters to provide subscribers with engaging, informative content about the Georgia National Fair and additional events at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter year-round.

The M&R team took an all-in approach to achieve the Fair’s goals for their 2022 season. Through a customized, comprehensive social media management package for Facebook and Instagram, our digital experts successfully maintained the Fair’s social accounts leading up to the 2022 Fair and increased posting schedules during the eleven-day event. The customized social media management package included on-site content creation, shooting, and posting.

Our digital department also implemented targeted social media ads to further extend the Fair’s reach among audiences and began monthly creation and management of the eNewsletter to communicate with subscribers throughout the year about the Fair and additional events at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter.

Additionally, our designers created the 2022 T-shirt design for Georgia National Fair staff to wear on duty and for the general public to purchase.

Our solutions for the 2022 Fair included:

The 2022 Georgia National Fair saw the second-highest attendance in its history. Our social media management and social media ads services significantly boosted the Fair’s ticket sales and overall performance and results from our services for the 2022 season have allowed us to maintain an ongoing partnership with the Georgia National Fair for the 2023 season.

Resulting stats from our services include:

• $147,000+ ticket sales generated through social media ($15 per ticket)
• 38 million+ impressions and 108,000+ clicks made via Social Media Ads
• 114,000+ engagements on Facebook
• 36,500+ engagements on Instagram
• 25% follower increase on Instagram between August and October 2022
• 178,000+ eNewsletters sent and counting
• eNews open rate of 40% (the goal across most industries is roughly 20%!)

The Georgia National Fair has partnered with M&R since 2022, and the team has met every need and exceeded expectations. The Georgia National Fair depends on M&R for digital email campaigns, graphic design, video creation, social media management, and paid advertising. During the 11-day Georgia National Fair, M&R captures on-site organic social media content.

As the marketing director of a small team, I depend on M&R to be an extension of my department. The knowledge, effort, creativity, and strategic vision that they provide has been vital to the success of the Georgia National Fair’s marketing and advertising efforts.

In M&R’s first year managing Fair social platforms, audience reach, profile visits, and page follow/likes were up by an average of 30%. Google Analytics performance metrics show that roughly $87,000 in tickets sales could be attributed to traffic from GNF social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) which represents a 219% return of investment.

The cherry on top is M&R’s outstanding customer service. Whether you are a solo marketing manager/business owner or lead a team of 50, M&R can offer creative solutions for any organization. I highly recommend working with the agency and am confident that the Georgia National Fair will continue to partner with M&R for many years to come.

– Maggie Lane, Marketing Director