Maximizing Philadelphia’s $1.2B global tourism and business presence with a site redesign and a suite of digital tools.

The Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) is the official tourism agency for the City of Philadelphia globally and the primary sales and marketing agency for the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The agency’s activity has a direct influence on the city of Philadelphia’s tourism, hospitality, and trade show industry to the tune of $1.2 Billion in economic impact. The agency was responsible for organizing notable events such as Pope Francis’ visit in 2015 and the NFL Draft in 2017. Today, there is high anticipation in the lead-up to 2026 when the city will host major activities around the 250th anniversary of the United States, the FIFA World Cup, and the MLB All-Star Game.

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Services

Digital Strategy
UI/UX Design
Website Development
Custom WordPress
Third-Party Integrations
IDSS Memberships

How it began

Since the launch of the first iteration of DiscoverPHL.com in 2012, research and user feedback have indicated that the website UI/UX, page structure, member organization, and content were visually confusing, lacked hierarchy, and almost impossible to navigate. PHLCVB hired Think It First as a strategy, design, and technology partner to assist them with a redesign to reengage Trade Associations, Governments, Global Corporations, Religious Organizations, Sports Organizations, Life Sciences, and more.

An iterative approach

Think It First quickly aligned priorities with the PHLCVB and set project goals. High up on the list of must-haves was site navigation fit for a global audience and to move away from a highly customized existing CMS, called Umbraco. Accommodating PHLCVB’s internal stakeholders and over 1200+ member organizations, Think It First overhauled the website’s information architecture, configured an integrated system of third-party tools and APIs, and migrated 3000+ pages of content to a new enterprise WordPress CMS.

Custom design for clarity and purpose

In a staged approach with many iterations and upgrades, Think It First designed and built a digital solution that delivers content with clarity and uniformity and also visually captures the personality of a city well-known for its “personality”. After designing a scalable new design system, we custom-built flexible modules to display content, landing pages, blog posts, itineraries, toolkits for meeting planners, RFP submission flows, industry insights, and more in a multitude of new and engaging ways.

Partnership Program, Meetings and Events, Venue Search, Member Listings

Many features of the new site received special treatment. The PHLCVB Partnership program leverages multistep forms and dynamic pricing tables to encourage new memberships. Meetings and Events sorting and filtering make sense of all the events happening at the Philadelphia Convention Center. A Google Maps integrated custom search helps Meeting Planners find the best city Hotel or Venue to host their event. Revamped Member organization, filtering, details, and landing pages all work together to help promote PHLCVB Member organizations to the global audience.

I don’t know if there’s one thing that is most impressive about Think It First. I appreciate the relationship we’ve built and knowing that they’re consistently going to answer our questions and solve our problems, whatever they may be. I may ask Think It First if they can help with certain areas of the website that they have barely touched, and they’ll do the research, figure it out, and make it happen. At the same time, they’re an organization that doesn’t just sit back and wait for things either. They look at the site and look at how it can improve, make suggestions and recommendations, and get things on the roadmap for us to handle down the line. They’re both reactive and proactive in the best possible way.

Digital Marketing Manager, PHLCVB

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