Growing success for Awnings Today

The fourth year of the Awnings Today campaign, sponsored by Professional Awnings Manufacturers Association (PAMA), a division of Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), proved to be the project’s best to date, an effort that garnered more than 16 billion impressions, from print, web, blogs and broadcast media. This compares to just over one billion the year before. Unique visits were up 40 percent from the third year from 12,248 to 17,341, and member referrals through the shop locator were up 22 percent from 2,890 in the third year to 3,526.

The growth can be attributed to three main factors. The campaign has had four years to establish itself with targeted messaging and outreach to key markets, it has adjusted its focus to carefully track market trends and tailor its messaging with compelling stories about how awnings and canopies meet trends, and social media has been successfully implemented, including the placement of videos on YouTube and the use of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Continued success in its fifth year is expected and planning is under way to expand the focus of the message to better educate commercial and professional markets.