Marketing Outdoor Pursuits at Ohio University

Ohio University’s Outdoor Pursuits program is flourishing — with a number of their Adventure Trips sold out far before the trip dates. From March 4-11, Outdoor Pursuits is taking students on a hike across the Appalachian Trail, the longest hiking trail in the world. Not into hiking? The same exact day’s other students will be learning how to surf and stand-up paddleboard in Sebastian Inlet, Florida.

With a bouldering trip planned March 18, a Backpacking and Camping trip in Seneca, W.V. March 24-26, Climbing at Red River Gorge March 31- April 2 and then Backpacking at Red River Gorge April 14-16, Outdoor Pursuits doesn’t make their students wait long in-between trips. Whilst the success rates of the number of attendees has a lot to do with the exciting trips planned, their promotional efforts don’t go unnoticed. The Outdoor Pursuits Twitter page, @OU_Outdoor, constantly reminds their followers of the exciting trips that are coming up with different visual marketing aids and content-oriented tweets.

Amy Schmitt, the marketing coordinator for Outdoor Pursuits, said she tries to make sure her marketing efforts are targeting the right audience. “When I’m writing social media copy for OP, I try to keep the brand personality in mind,” said Schmitt. “This is somewhat of a persona I created that emulates the personalities of the staff. This is someone who is adventurous, up for a challenge, and welcoming of newcomers. The brand personality is the person that a newcomer feels welcome to talk to and learn from.”

Student designers keep students with engaged with graphics promoting their content so they don’t get overwhelmed with too much copy. Schmitt said she also tries to keep the accounts followers interested by participating in relevant, fun hashtags.

“Each week, I post a photo from a past trip with the hashtag #travelTuesday,” said Schmitt. “I think students like to see themselves in these photos on social media, so they get a lot of engagement. Plus, it’s important for the brand to take a break from event promotion and just do something fun.”

Schmitt said there’s been a lot of success in the past year and a half, and that most trips sell out fast. “I think Outdoor Pursuits is growing,” added Schmitt. “Both with registration numbers and awareness on campus. People are starting to know more about us, and that’s led to offering more and more trip opportunities. This semester has been extremely successful. All of our upcoming trips this semester are already sold out. We’ve opened up more registration spots to accommodate high demand.”

A list of details on all of the upcoming trips with Ohio University’s Outdoor Pursuits can be found here https://www.ohio.edu/recreation/outdoorpursuits/trips/adventure.cfm.

Karima Neghmouche can be contacted at kari@peakemedia.com.