Institute for Family-Owned Businesses

CHALLENGE

The Institute of Family-Owned Business (IFOB) has successfully organized the Maine Family Business Awards for over two decades. Despite the event’s rich history, they faced a dual challenge. First, garnering diverse nominations proved challenging as the lengthy application form on their website deterred potential nominees. Even with prior experience using Meta Ads, IFOB discovered that users were reluctant to engage through this avenue.

Second, while IFOB excelled in generating media coverage and excitement surrounding the awards, they encountered difficulties in selling tickets for the awards dinner. The task was to connect with the right audience in Maine—individuals eager to celebrate and support their favorite family-owned businesses.

To succeed, we needed to both streamline the nomination process and effectively target and engage Mainers interested in attending the awards dinner to achieve a memorable celebration of these remarkable family-owned enterprises.

SOLUTION

Through the strategic implementation of Lead Form Ads on both Facebook and LinkedIn, our team achieved remarkable success for the Institute of Family-Owned Business (IFOB). This initiative resulted in the generation of over 300 local business submissions. Remarkably, this abundance of submissions enhanced the scope of this year’s awards and positioned IFOB with a promising pool of leads for potential future nominations.

The decision to exclusively utilize LinkedIn for ticket sale ads proved to be pivotal. Leveraging retargeting campaigns, which emanated from the nomination ads, and precise demographic targeting, we successfully sold out the 2023 Maine Family Business Awards (MFBA) event, surpassing the mark of 500 tickets. This comprehensive approach ensured a vibrant turnout and demonstrated the power of targeted advertising in meeting and exceeding event attendance expectations.

Project Highlights

250+
Local Business Nominations Generated on FB

20,011
LinkedIn Ticket Sale Campaign Impressions

577
LinkedIn Ticket Sale Campaign Clicks

My Experience with flyte

“We’ve worked with Rich, John and their flyte team for years and they are a breeze to work with especially when they introduce us to new technology like GA4 and AI. They also knocked it out of the park for us for our 23rd Annual Maine Family Business Awards with their strategic Linked in and Facebook ad campaigns. We received more than 500 nominations from all across Maine, smashing our previous record. They are proactive, use Basecamp (which helps keep us all on track) and they are so knowledgeable and quick to respond. We can’t say enough about this amazing team and how lucky we are to work with them!”

Catherine Wygant Fossett - Institute for Family-Owned Businesses