How do you combine the social muscle of a service such as Twitter with a travel brand in order to increase awareness of a destination?
Expedia Media Solutions partnered with The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC), to leverage the power of social community and Twitter's “Flock to Unlock” mechanic to activate its audience in a unique campaign.
NB: This is an analysis by Angelique Miller, global director of creative partnerships for Expedia Media Solutions on how her team partnered with Evelina Hederer, Marketing Project Manager at The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) on a unique campaign.
To celebrate 125 years of famed Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh’s legacy, his birthplace is inviting the world to experience cultural events, exhibitions and tours throughout the year.
They will celebrate not only his work and life but also areas most associated with the painter – such as Brabant, Gelderland and Amsterdam.
The NBTC partnered with Expedia Media Solutions to orchestrate a creative six-week social campaign #VanGogh2015 from March 2 to April 12 that would promote Holland as a key destination to travelers in the UK, France and Germany in 2015.
By leveraging the power of Twitter – specifically its “Flock to Unlock” mechanism – the campaign captivated a wide audience and drove interest in experiencing the life of the post-impressionist painter and the inspiration he left behind.
Twitter’s “Flock to Unlock” mechanism incentivizes followers to spread a message by tweeting and retweeting to unlock exclusive content or rewards.
In this instance the challenge was for users to collaboratively tweet and retweet the #VanGogh2015 hashtag, to earn brush strokes that revealed six of Van Gogh’s famous works of art and a chance to win a trip to the Netherlands.
Proving the value of this mechanism coupled with a media buy that ran on targeted Expedia points of sale, the campaign drove double-digit growth in demand to the Netherlands over the six-week period.
Twitter impressions reached 2.2 million and engagement exceeded 22,000.
The collaborative element of the task, which leverages crowdsourcing rather than engaging with content individually, can be a really powerful draw for many brands – especially for campaigns that look to promote activities such as travelling or sightseeing where people often share their experiences with others.
To be effective, brands need to engage with participants throughout the entirety of the campaign cycle – driving awareness and anticipation of the campaign before it launches, encouraging sharing throughout the promotional period and collecting feedback once it completes.
This holistic approach ignites anticipation and early participation and drives repeat visits to the site to unlock more content.
Getting all those elements of the campaign right is no easy task, but “Flock to Unlock” can be an effective avenue for destinations to spread their message and inspire future interaction and visitors.
A carefully executed campaign will find visitors flocking to your destination.
NB: This is an analysis by Angelique Miller, global director of creative partnerships for Expedia Media Solutions. It appears here as part of Tnooz's sponsored content initiative.