Portland Parks & Recreation
Amplifying free summer fun across the city
The Challenge
Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) hosts a fantastic lineup of Summer Free For All cultural events, concerts, films and other programming in parks across the city. But reaching underserved Portland audiences and geographies has traditionally been a challenge.
PP&R tapped WPR to devise and implement a marketing campaign that would break through the clutter and deliver maximum value for their dollar with target audiences across our beloved city.
The Goal & Strategy
Plotting out target zip codes alongside culturally focused media ultimately led us to recommend a dynamic mix. Bridging between digital – including paid search, streaming audio, social, display and pre-roll video, to name a few – and traditional channels like radio, print, TV and out-of-home ads gave us a high degree of confidence for reaching PP&R’s prioritized communities.
While we were striving for a broader diversity of channels than previous campaigns, we also recommended media buys with enough volume to achieve significant impact and consistency amidst a crowded advertising landscape.
Using PP&R’s creative assets, we targeted Portlanders during their daily commutes, mobile scrolling, evening TV viewing, and all points in between to drive event awareness and attendance.
40M
impressions
6
news segments
13.35%
click-through-rate
160+
promotional spots
The Results:
More than 40 million impressions with a reach of nearly 3 million people, far surpassing 2023 benchmarks. The strongest audience engagement was achieved among parents and low-income Portlanders, with paid search performing particularly well at a click-through-rate of 13.35% – approximately three times higher than the industry average.
WPR also secured a partnership with KGW-TV (NBC-8) that generated six news segments and 160+ promotional spots.
PP&R’s summer lineup of concerts, movies, and other cultural events was well-attended by a diverse mix of Portlanders, further bolstering positive public perceptions of Portland parks.
Video of coverage from KGW-TV (NBC-8)
