Fair play to
VisitRichmond, the small tourism authority for the state capital of Virginia, for taking an extremely unconventional route to getting exposure on social media.
The city recently hosted the
UCI Road World Championships (a major date on the global cycling calendar), giving the organisation the chance to showcase the city and wider area to both fans and participants.
But rather than just having a booth somewhere or handing out flyers, VisitRichmond went one step further.
With almost 650,000 people in the crowds over the course of the nine-day event, organisers created a FanFest which acted as a hub for athletes, visitors and local businesses to mingle before, during and after the races.
The tourism board had its own area in the fan zone where visitors could learn more about the region, but furthermore it partnered with a local tattoo parlour.
The idea was that the famous local store would give away a free tattoo (real or temporary) in return for sharing the finished product on Twitter and using the inevitable VisitRichmond hashtag.
Or...
The organisation says 62 real tattoos were given away during the course of event, which in turn created what it claims are some healthy returns for the idea ("a DIY mentality and a small budget", it says, knowing that is has just a scintilla of the marketing budget and visitor numbers that many other cities in the US have).
- The VisitRichmond Twitter profile had a 160% increase in visits in seven days compared to the monthly average (4,221 vs the usual 2,570 for an entire month).
- 430 mentions on social media (it usually gets 277 in an entire month).
- 2.2 million #visitrichmond "impressions" in seven days.