THE CHALLENGE
In 2018 we successfully partnered with Holland to deliver a campaign in 7 markets, focused on driving international tourism to Utrecht and its region through music. Taking inspiration from our successful #MusicMakesYouTravel concept, we created a new bespoke engaging campaign able to attract audiences through different solutions. The campaign included video content creation, custom itineraries with our partner Rough Guides, the involvement of a local artist and a branded playlist on Spotify.
THE STRATEGY
We began by analysing the data provided by the client, which showed that the highest percentage of international tourists travel to popular destinations such as Amsterdam. Our challenge was then to redirect UK, Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish and US travelers to Utrecht and other Dutch destinations, where music festivals are held.
Thanks to an established relationship with our European “Music Lover” customers, we were able to reach out to the perfect target audience for this campaign.
Urban Holland was created to engage with “cultural explorers, music lovers and event hunters”, inspiring them to visit the Netherlands and discover all the unique events the cities had to offer. With this in mind, we built a strong campaign focused on delivering the following objectives.
OBJECTIVES:
Increase inspiration to travel to Utrecht and other cities through their music eventsUrban Holland campaign focused on delivering the objectives through original Content Production, Display activation on-site and off-site, Social Media promotion and Travel Insights.
THE EXECUTION
We created new editorial content that was relevant for the target audience, in regards to Festivals in Holland and the city of Utrecht.
These included: 2 original videos promoting local artists and music events, 2 bespoke landing pages in different languages for each market, 2 Rough guides articles focused on music festivals and Utrecht, 1 Rough guides ebook about Holland’s music scene and one Music Ambassador that we worked with Amber Arcades, a local musician from Utrecht.
We partnered with Amber Arcades, a local musician from Utrecht, to produce some exclusive video content. We interviewed her in Utrecht and filmed her while she showed us around the city and told us about what makes it so special for music lovers.
The video we produced was featured on the bespoke content hub, lastminute.com social media channels including YouTube.
On top of filming and producing the original video with Amber Arcades we have also created another one repurposing some old footage provided by Visit Holland.
Our strategy for this video was showcase the breadth and excitement of all the music experiences Holland has to offer and invite festivals and music travellers to book their next adventure.
We created 2 bespoke landing pages on lastminute.com for each market targeted in 6 different languages.
One landing page was focused showing the authenticity of the Dutch local flavours and tunes in Utrecht. While the other was related to the “Music makes you travel” concept in Holland with all the different music genres and their festivals and artists in the country.
We created a guidebook with custom itineraries about Holland and its music festival with the related dates.
We composed two articles about Urban Holland main topics: Festivals in Holland and the City of Utrecht, highlighting the best festivals in the Country and the best places in the city.
The exclusive content produced was shared on social media lastminute.com network and beyond. Created to work across: Facebook posts, Instagram videos, YouTube videos, High impact display, Native media placements, Social media paid promotions. On top of social campaign we activated also a digital media campaign, promoted across all the relevant properties in our owned and extended network. Scaled both direct and programmatic delivery via our media ad-tech in house.
THE RESULTS
In over 10 weeks the campaign delivered over 10M impressions resulting in over 16.5k page views across 7 markets with an average dwell time 2:16
Combined with Rough Guides articles, over 3k page views and complete video views (over 494.4k) we had 513,997 views. Content relevant and users engaged
On and off site banners and native placements delivered a total of over 12.5k clicks with an overall CTR 0.32% (above our overall benchmark 0.15%).
Over 70% of clicks generated came from Sublime Skins and Native Placements
YouTube achieved over 695.7k video views (30secs or more) with a VTR of 59% (vs 42%). Completed views we had VTR 41% - Strong result
Social Media generated over 15.1k clicks and over 506.5k engagement posts
EXTRA
Branding exposure