If your kids are like many, at this point they can tell you how many hours, minutes and seconds are left of the school year. Now it’s time to plan the family vacation – but where to go this year?
Several international tourism groups have been working hard to draw you to their corner of the world, and they’re using social media, in some truly creative ways, to do it.
Kiss Me, I #LoveDublin
Tourism Ireland took the “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” theme and ran with it in a campaign which launched in 2014. The main draw was a video posted on YouTube – and promoted on the organization’s site – which mashed together clips of eight couples kissing in different locations around Southern Ireland’s capital city. The challenge? Try to figure out which were real couples, and which were strangers set up for the shot. As viewers made their guesses, results were made easily sharable with a social media hashtag, #LoveDublin.
A similar campaign ran concurrently to promote Northern Ireland’s capital city of Belfast. The same approach – eight videos – invited viewers to guess whether the images had been shot via traditional photography or high end apps. The conversation was directed around the hashtag #PictureBelfast.
Hand Over the Selfie
Canadian Tourism made waves on the social media circuit earlier this year when they launched their “Selfie Swap” campaign. Tourists and natives were invited to send a selfie to the tourist board as part of a “swap” – for the chance to take an even better one in Montreal, or Quebec City, or any number of Canadian locations. By inviting website visitors to upload their photos, the campaign began a visual conversation about travel in general as people showed off their various adventures.
Gamifiying Switzerland
Another growing audience engagement method is gamification – driving traffic and raising awareness by creating a gaming experience around a marketing campaign. In the case of Geneva Tourism & Conventions, the “Jet Off to Geneva” program was launched last spring. Using both the travel euphemism and the reference to the country’s popular Jet D’Eau landmark, the gamified campaign let potential tourists visit a virtual world microsite where they could power a bike to generate as much power to the Jet D’Eau as possible. Prizes were awarded based on the amount of water “pumped.”
Being social means more than just showing up to the party…
Digital marketing has come a long way from the days of static banners and click-throughs. In the social media arena, it’s more important than ever to not only show up, but to engage in a meaningful way. Following the examples of these tourism campaigns, we see sample concepts in action:
Visuals win. Statistics say we remember 20% of what we read and 80% of what we see or experience. By inviting target customers to watch fun videos, take selfies to post, or enter a virtual gaming world, these campaigns have not only grabbed attention, they’ve brought the viewer right into the action.
Real people relate. By foregoing actors and spokespeople in favor of real folks on the streets of Dublin (even if some weren’t real couples), or soliciting selfies instead of posting professionally staged shots, the Ireland and Canada campaigns became instantly relatable – viewers are more likely to say “they are just like us” or “I can do that too” when the approach is more casual.
Games aren’t just for kids. Gamification is penetrating marketing campaigns in more industries than ever, proving that everyone likes to have a little fun. By Switzerland challenging visitors to their promotional microsite, Geneva Tourism created both a physical and emotional interaction channel. Powering a virtual bike to win prizes? Who wouldn’t give it a spin?
Today’s publicity efforts are more varied than ever, with countless ways to maximize social channels. If you’d like to brainstorm the best ways to not only reach your target customer, but to truly engage them, we’d love to talk to you. Give us a call at (203) 762-8833 and we’ll get our own interaction started!
– BML
