A new Pittsburgh-branded marketing campaign titled \u201cForge On\u201d \u2014 including bus wraps \u2014 will take over the Washington, D.C., metro area this June.<\/p>\n
Emily Hatfield, vice president of marketing and communications at Visit Pittsburgh, said Pittsburgh will undertake what she calls a D.C. \u201cstation domination.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be taking over Metro Center,\u201d she said, referring to a central hub of the Washington subway. \u201cWe\u2019ll also be having around 20 bus wraps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to bring Pittsburgh to D.C. in June.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh branding that will be visible in Washington is part of Visit Pittsburgh\u2019s campaign \u201cForge On,\u201d which officially launched Monday.<\/p>\n
Hatfield said it\u2019s the largest advertising campaign in Visit Pittsburgh\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis campaign is very strategic in that we\u2019ve been designing it in tandem as we\u2019ve been planning to host the NFL Draft because we knew that we had an incredible moment in time to make sure that when we had all all eyes on Pittsburgh \u2014 all 50 million viewers worldwide \u2014 that we were putting forth a new advertising campaign that was strategic and also very telling of the narrative of Pittsburgh today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Since Visit Pittsburgh has known about the draft coming to town for almost two years, Hatfield said, planning the \u201cForge On\u201d campaign started around 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
Expanding reach<\/p>\n
By launching \u201cForge On\u201d alongside the NFL Draft, Hatfield said, Visit Pittsburgh will be able to capitalize on the giant event\u2019s momentum. The draft begins April 23 and runs through the weekend.<\/p>\n
Jerad Bachar, president and CEO of Visit Pittsburgh, said the campaign allows the community to \u201ccontinue to ride the wave of all the publicity\u201d the city\u2019s getting aound the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaunching this campaign right now is by design,\u201d he said. \u201c \u2018Forge On\u2019 is a great representation of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers in general; it talks about the grit and the resilience of our city and how we continue to evolve in a really meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hatfield said 78% of past visitors to Pittsburgh found the city appealing, according to the Future Partners\u2019 2025 Brand Tracking Study of 3,000 respondents and Madden Media-led stakeholder focus groups involving nearly 50 Pittsburgh visitor industry partners.<\/p>\n
The research noted an awareness gap, she said, among those who haven\u2019t visited. People\u2019s most common reason cited for not visiting Pittsburgh is that the city \u201cjust isn\u2019t on (their) radar,\u201d according to the study.<\/p>\n
Hatfield said Visit Pittsburgh\u2019s core markets that are usually targeted are normally a 500-mile radius outside of Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n
But \u201cForge On\u201d is expanding Pittsburgh\u2019s marketing reach \u2014 targeting new markets outside of that region, including Atlanta, Buffalo, Chicago and Detroit, said Hatfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really trying to be strategic and reach new visitors to drive ultimately economic impact for the community,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly exciting to finally have this campaign out into the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, for the first time, Visit Pittsburgh will also be launching regional marketing outside of the Allegheny County region, Hatfield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that this is a rally cry that a lot of locals resonate with,\u201d she said. \u201cAs you\u2019re driving into work, you\u2019ll likely be seeing some \u2026 billboards on your way in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cForge On\u201d campaign materials, including a new commercial, could also appear as people are listening to their favorite podcast or streaming their favorite TV show, according to Hatfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a campaign that is about Pittsburgh for Pittsburghers, and we\u2019re really excited to bring it to light,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bachar said through the planning process, Visit Pittsburgh listened to its partners and conducted research to fully understand what travelers think about Pittsburgh today and what they hope to see in the future.<\/p>\n
In 2025, he said, Allegheny County saw an estimated 21.5 million travel consumers come into the market, and those consumers generated an estimated total of more than $7 billion in economic impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that direct economic impact is absolutely valuable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The NFL Draft represents positive momentum coming into the Pittsburgh market in terms of tourism and also from an investment standpoint, according to Bachar.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018Forge On\u2019 is much more than just a slogan \u2014 it is very much a rallying cry,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll be seeing a lot of the contemporary aspects of Pittsburgh \u2026 across arts, culture, community (and) neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Pittsburgh-branded marketing campaign titled \u201cForge On\u201d \u2014 including bus wraps \u2014 will take over the Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-146621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}