COVID Stories, Rethinking a Campaign to Meet the Moment - Concord NH

Three years ago, Louis Karno & Company kicked off a bold effort to position a campaign to position Concord, NH, as a culture driven destination. A new website, visitconcord-nh.com, was launched with supporting social media. The site used search engine optimization to drive views, and position the city in front of people who did not know it exists.

But, then COVID-19 came along, hurting the very creative economy that was behind the city’s rise. In partnership with the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce and the committee behind the site, a makeover began to keep the project in tune with a changing world.

“We drilled down on three key content areas,”saidJayme H. Simoes of Louis Karno. “First, we did, take out, online shopping, and safely enjoying Concord (as in hiking and reading). Then we pivoted to supporting the arts in a time of crisis. Lastly, we worked with local realtors to produce a series of relation articles.”

Concord, the capital of NH has what many people are looking for: A small city, with a thriving downtown, excellent hospital, and low infection rate. Not to mention, surrounded by rural areas, with hiking, skiing, and lakes.

The truth was, as COVID transformed cities into less-than-pleasant places to be, Concord’s image was crucial. With so many people working from home, a relocation movement grew up, driving people to look for smaller, safer places, not unlike Concord. Using SEO, the articles publicized on Visit Concord NH comes up first in a Google search for Relocation Concord NH. With the new content, readership grew — from just 3,000 in March to close to 9,000 in August.

“The thing is, when times got tough, we did not hide and wait,” Simoes said. “We rose to the challenge, respected our brand - and worked hard to share the good news in a troubled time.”