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 in 2022, it sought assistance with social media management, paid digital advertising, and email marketing for their 2022 Fair season. The Fair’s Facebook and Instagram accounts needed some hands-on MLC (marketing-loving care) to create an engaging, trendy, up-to-date presence leading up to the 2022 Fair and throughout the 11-day event. Plus, it needed some digital ads and email marketing services for a well-rounded campaign strategy.

However, after the first year of our relationship, it became clear that the Fair would benefit from even more M&R services. The Fair transitioned the majority of its digital advertising to us, and not without results to match! In the third year, we continued to hone those services and strategies with increased budgets, which resulted in even greater performance.

2022

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 implemented targeted social media ads to further extend the Fair’s reach among audiences. We also began monthly creation and management of an 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:

2022 Results

In our first year as a marketing partner for the Fair, we saw:

• $147,000+ in ticket sales generated through social media (at $15 per ticket)
• 5 million impressions made via Social Media Ads
• 257,000+ engagements on social media
• 25% follower increase on Instagram between August and October 2022
• 178,000+ eNewsletters sent
• eNews open rate of 40% (the goal across most industries is roughly 20%!)

The 2022 Fair was, at the time, the second-highest-attended event in the Fair’s history.

2023

Building on what we provided in 2022, our digital team used new or enhanced services to promote the 2023 Georgia National Fair. Solutions included:

2023 Results

• 19 million impressions on social media
• 64 million engagements on social media
• 14,256 conversions (or purchase events on GA4)
• 2,800 follower increase on Instagram during M&R’s management

2024

In 2024, the Fair increased its services from M&R even more with new or updated solutions like:

2024 Results

• 61 million impressions (55% higher than the same period in 2023)
• 38 million engagements (95% higher than same period in 2023)
• 18,615 conversions (31% higher than same period of 2023)
• 3,300 follower increase on Instagram during management

Due to numerous successful posts on Instagram, including a reel that went viral, reach and engagement on Instagram rose over 600% from 2023. But even without the viral video, reach was nearly double the previous year’s reach during the same period.

We also broke our own record from 2022 for promoting the second-highest-attended event in the Fair’s history.

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