How New Orleans TMC Evolved their Blog & YouTube Channel into the Ultimate Insider’s Guide

Posted on by Melissa Cartaginese

Some tourist destinations have to dig deep when promoting attractions that might lure visitors. New Orleans, on the other hand, has the opposite problem.

As one of the oldest cities in North America (New Orleans will celebrate its Tricentennial in 2018), the birthplace of Jazz, the home of Cajun and Creole traditions and the world famous Mardi Gras, New Orleans is the kind of destination whose main attractions need no awareness campaign.  

But while the world famous hotspot continues to inspire visits to Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, and major events like the New Orleans Jazz Festival, some of the city’s approximately 10.5 million annual visitors often only scratch the surface of what it has to offer.

When the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation first launched its blog, GoNOLA.com in 2010, the goal was to capture the sights and sounds of the world’s most festive city and in a fun, quick, and conversational way.

“This city can be a sensory overload when you’re here, with the food and the music and the colors and the architecture and the history,” explained Jeremy Cooker, the Vice President of Marketing and Special Projects for the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. “If you look back at [our first posts and the first videos in] the archive of  GoNOLA’s YouTube channel, it looks like a[n] . . .  approach of ‘let’s just capture as much as we possibly can.’”

Transforming GoNOLA into a True Insider’s Guide

Over the years, however, GoNOLA has matured from its humble roots as an archive of the city’s most famous attractions and events to an exploration of those sides of the city visitors are less likely to find on their own.

“GoNOLA allows us to peel the layers back a little bit for our visitors,” says Cooker.

The YouTube channel does provide one-minute guides to the Jazz Fest and a behind the scenes series on the making of Mardi Gras, but some of its most popular videos are those that touch on those lesser known part of New Orleans culture. Some of the most watched videos include a guide to eating crawfish, a tour of the city’s storied cemeteries and an explanation of the difference between Cajun and Creole cooking.

“There’s just a lot more to the city than some people realize,” says Cooker, adding that New Orleans is home to over 135 annual festivals, several  of which are not commonly known outside of the city.

“The way we’ve presented GoNOLA is as somewhat of an insider’s guide: internally we talk about it as your cool friend who lives here and knows all the fun things that are going on.”

These videos, in other words, strive to equip potential visitors with a local’s depth of understanding so they can discover some of the city’s hidden gems before being lured to its handful of world-renowned attractions.

“In New Orleans we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of what people look for in a travel destination, there’s no shortage of content here, no shortage of things we can put out there,” explains Cooker.

“It’s just a matter of what’s going to make people lean in, sit up, and say ‘I want to see more of this.’”

Choosing Content to Create for GoNOLA

Deciding on which of those riches to hone in on, says Cooker, starts with a combination of audience feedback and the city’s events calendar.

The social and search teams present some of the most popular queries, search terms and questions they receive, coupled with upcoming festivals and events, and work with the editorial team to put together a production plan.

“We have a full team meeting every month with all the agency partners, search, social and our in-house editorial team, as well as our colleagues at the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (NOCVB), and we all lay out what the month will look like,” explains Cooker, adding that the vision is ultimately brought to life by a local production team, Calm Dog Productions.

“I think there’s some inherent sense, internally, of whether it’s good enough if all of us want to share the video immediately with as many people as possible.”

Shipping GoNOLA Videos to Thousands of Followers

The videos are published on the GoNOLATV YouTube Channel, which has over 6,000 followers, and sometimes shared on  New Orleans Tourism’s Facebook page, which has over half a million.

The videos are also promoted through the organization’s newsletters and paid social advertising. New Orleans-based social advertising agency FSC Interactive has managed GoNOLA and its video content on behalf of NOTMC for the past several years, in addition to managing NOTMC’s and NOCVB’s social channels.

Video viewership on GoNOLA’s YouTube channel, according to Cooker, can range from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand, but the less viral videos are often intended to tap into a more niche audience.

Their fun, playful videos have won them a 2017 VIZZI Award for best video storytelling.

“New Orleans is Built on Stories” — Future Endeavors

Cooker adds that while the GoNOLA videos have been very successful in the past viewers can expect big things starting in September, as the city prepares to celebrate its 300th birthday.

“New Orleans is built on 300 years of great stories, and we’re going to be inviting people to come and be part of that history, part of our story, and make New Orleans part of their story.”  

Cooker acknowledges that while some other destinations may want to keep their stories within the destination, New Orleans opts to ask people to share and share often their experiences.  

To give web visitors an authentic lens into these experiences, NOTMC is partnering with the New Orleans CVB to launch a brand new website in the fall at NewOrleans.com which will feature galleries of user-generated content made with CrowdRiff throughout.

“We want to keep showing the stuff we know people love, and showing the stuff people might not be aware of,” says Cooker. “There’s always something to explore here, so we’ve got a lot more to cover.”

 

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Doors of Thrones: How Northern Ireland Rose into the Travel Limelight with Game of Thrones

Posted on by Lucas Luxton

Luck doesn’t materialize independently. Luck only happens when one identifies and seizes an extraordinary opportunity that they could have just as easily missed.

So even though Brian Twomey, the Head of Marketing Communications for Tourism Ireland, suggests that it was luck that dropped perhaps the most successful destination marketing campaign of the year into his backyard, there’s more to be said about the persistence and creative thinking of Twomey and his agency partners.

Over the 15 years Twomey has spent marketing the island—both the U.K.-governed Northern Ireland and the independent Republic of Ireland—the southern end has historically enjoyed more notoriety, recognition and visitors. The north, however, recently identified and acted upon one such lucky break, emerging as its own tourism force in the process.  

That’s because one of the most popular TV shows of this generation, Game of Thrones, happens to film in Northern Ireland, as well as Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Spain and the United States. Of all those countries, however, only one took advantage of that opportunity, when recently Tourism Ireland put out a campaign that wowed Game of Thrones fans all over the world and received several accolades: Doors of Thrones.

The story behind the legendary Doors of Thrones begins, however, with taking advantage of a few of “lucky” circumstances years ago.

The Starting Point: Creating a Partnership with HBO

“About four years ago our advertising agency said there’s an opportunity here, let’s at least open the conversation and see what we can do,” said Twomey.

Their creative agency, Publicis, and their media agency, Carat, put together some initial content to pitch, ensuring that the production quality matched that of the show; but getting that content into the right hands proved challenging.

“It took about six months of discussion to identify the gatekeepers and get a buy-in into our vision,” he said.

“A big organization like that, you’ve got a team that looks after global marketing, you’ve got a team that looks after the legal aspects, you’ve got a team that looks after the show, you’ve got multiple stakeholders within HBO that have to be totally onboard with what’s being proposed.”

Eventually, from using, in his words, “Irish charm and persistence,” to build credibility and trust amongst stakeholders based around the world, in 2014 Tourism Ireland became the only destination in the world to create marketing content in collaboration with HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Each campaign that results from the partnership is still subject to a rigorous evaluation and approval process, says Twomey, but now there’s a direct link to the show’s most important stakeholders. “It goes right to the two main writers of the show,” he said. “They take a significant amount of executive time to approve our ambitious campaigns.”

Spinning an Accident into a Marketing Breakthrough

A couple of years into that partnership an equally significant opportunity once again crash-landed in Twomey’s backyard, though at first glance it may have appeared more like a tragedy.

In late 2015 and early 2016 Storm Gertrude ripped through the United Kingdom, leaving many without power and partially damaging one of Northern Ireland’s most popular Game of Thrones attractions. When the storm finally passed they discovered that the surreal tree tunnel featured in the show’s season two premiere was short a few branches. 

Tourism Ireland Doors of Thrones Dark Hedges CrowdRiff

Known as the Dark Hedges, the trail was planted in Northern Ireland more than 200 years prior, and had since become a key destination for Game of Thrones tourists.

“Although I think it was in the show for two or three seconds, it’s quite an evocative visual,” says Twomey. “A show like Game of Thrones, which uses a lot of CGI, there aren’t a huge amount of locations that are exactly as they were in the show, and the Dark Hedges is one of them.”

Knowing that the two fallen trees would have extraordinary value to fans, Twomey and his team considered how they could best convert the lumber into a lasting public attraction. “It was purely serendipity that the trees were knocked down in the storm,” he says. “We didn’t even know what we were creating at the start.”

Ultimately Twomey’s team, their agency partners and the gatekeepers at HBO decided to employ highly skilled artists and woodworkers to turn the lumber into a series of 10 doors.

The Result: Tourism Ireland’s Doors of Thrones

Why doors? one might ask.

“Why not doors?” says Twomey. “I think we sort of said ‘let’s create something you can mount’ and someone said, ‘Why not create a door?’”

The 10 doors, built from the fallen trees of the Dark Hedges, each represent one of the 10 episodes from season six, and can be found in 10 different locations scattered across the country.  

DOORS OF THRONES: HOW NORTHERN IRELAND ROSE INTO THE TRAVEL LIMELIGHT WITH GAME OF THRONES

“Because of our relationship with HBO we get inside information to the plotlines, which enabled us, as the show was aired, to reveal a door that had imbedded all of this real time information for that show for fans to decode.”

Each door was unveiled through social media videos that were viewed a combined 17.5 million times, engaged with 250,000 times, achieving a combined total reach of 126 million.

DOORS OF THRONES: HOW NORTHERN IRELAND ROSE INTO THE TRAVEL LIMELIGHT WITH GAME OF THRONES

In 2016 the campaign generated £17 million in earned media (approximately $22 million USD), resulting in a record setting year for tourism that saw an 8% bump from 2015.

While each of the unique doors is tied to an individual episode that has long-since aired they continue to draw throngs of tourists to this day, who are encouraged to collect a stamp at all ten in their Game of Thrones tour of Northern Ireland passports. Twomey says that this strategy was intentional, drawing inspiration from New Zealand’s Hobbit Trail, which continues to draw tourists 14 years after the final Lord of the Rings film left theatres.

“It’s another layer, it’s something tangible, and even after the show leaves you can still visit the doors. They’re one-offs, the craftsmanship has a real wow factor, and the story is so original, which is why this campaign keeps winning awards.”

The international award count for the “Doors of Thrones” campaign recently surpassed 35 when it earned bronze, silver and gold Cannes Lions.

Though he’s sworn to secrecy Twomey can barely contain his excitement when trying to not talk about the campaign that will launch in mid-July in conjunction with the premiere of season seven. Whatever the result, he will likely credit luck or serendipity for its success, but those who have seen his “Irish charm and persistence” in action will know there’s more to it than that.

Images of Doors and Hedges courtesy of Tourism Ireland.

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How Sioux Falls Uses CrowdRiff to Leverage the UGC that Speaks to their Visitors

Posted on by Amrita Gurney

As longtime CrowdRiff power-users, the marketers at Sioux Falls CVB have found visual user-generated content (UGC) to be key in their efforts to engage and connect with both visitors and locals.

They’ve fallen into a great rhythm of finding social photos and visuals and publishing them to their marketing channels with CrowdRiff, as well as seen huge increases in social engagement.

I recently sat down with Krista Orsack and Matt Barthel of Sioux Falls to chat about their experience using the platform for their visual marketing, and here’s what they had to say.

A CrowdRiff Conversation with Sioux Falls on the Power of User-Generated Content

Amrita: Thanks, Krista and Matt, for giving me some of your time today. I’d love to first get to know a bit about the two of you. Are you from the area and have you been working in the tourism sector for a while?

Krista: I’m the Director of Marketing here at this CVB and I’ve lived in Sioux Falls my entire life, and I’ve been in the tourism industry for about fifteen years.

Matt: I also grew up in Sioux Falls and have lived here my whole life. I’ve only been with CVB for two and half years – so a small chunk compared to Kristen’s time here.

Is it the two of you on the marketing team? What does the Sioux Falls CVB look like specifically in marketing?

K: We have three people on our marketing team: myself and Matt, and our creative development manager.

We’re always collaborating with the sales team and doing what we can to best come up with the latest and greatest ideas. We’re a small marketing team of three people and we could definitely add another person.

Do you market to both leisure travelers and business travelers?

K: Yes. Here at CVB, we handle all the leisure and group sales activities, including group events, group tours, international marketing, as well as meetings and conventions.

I’d love to learn about what you were doing when you decided to start using a tool like CrowdRiff. Can you give me a little background on what prompted you to start working with it?

M: Initially, we were looking to expand our social reach and gain more followers, so that was the primary reason we joined CrowdRiff. As we started working with it and doing some research, we realized how much more could gain from CrowdRiff, including gaining user-generated content and incorporating it into our website as well.

Speaking of which, I’d love to learn more about what you’re doing with CrowdRiff on your website.

M: On our website, we have a bunch of directory listings that include attractions, hotels, and restaurants. Within each directory listing, we chose to add a gallery using CrowdRiff for each one. For example, a certain attraction will have a certain amount user-generated content, so we incorporate that into directory listings and in our content. A piece of content can have anywhere from 5-12 different galleries.

sioux falls galleries

K: It definitely adds an element of engagement. We’ve seen our engagement metrics increase since working with CrowdRiff. Everything we do in the tourism industry is visual. From an efficiency standpoint, the platform really allows us to showcase actual visitors in our location and in real-time because the pictures update on a regular basis.

A: That makes a lot of sense. We all understand that visuals are a big part of how we choose what to do and where to go. The fact that you’re putting those not just in one place but throughout the website is something that a lot of destinations would be interested to learn more about.

Who works with CrowdRiff directly and what does your typical workflow look like? You’ve got a lot of visuals on your website, so I’d like to hear more about what that means on a day-to-day level.

M: I’m the one who primarily works with CrowdRiff. 

On a day-to-day basis, I check CrowdRiff for anything that’s come in recently. Then I just add certain photos to page-specific galleries or to our main gallery on our website. Sometimes this involves trying to get rights for photos; I find unique photos that qualify for that and put them in appropriate folders so they’re ready to go when we need to use them.

How often do you find yourself adding new social trackers, Matt?

M: It depends on how often things are popping up in Sioux Falls. For example, our new visitor guide comes out in February, so there can be anywhere from 10-20 new additions at that time. Throughout the year, we just have the ones that come up now and then. I would say, on average, I add something new once a week.

You mentioned that you’re using galleries on your directory listings. Did you start out using galleries throughout your website or did you do one page first and go from there?

M: We started with one or two galleries on a content piece or on a landing page. We started to see the effects and thought, “Hey, why don’t we incorporate these galleries throughout our whole website?” So, we made the decision to put CrowdRiff galleries on every directory on the website.


K: Working with CrowdRiff has opened doors to tracking more hashtags than we normally would have done. Also, thanks to the photo rights element, we’re getting user-generated content to use across all our digital marketing.

Could you share any examples of the kinds of digital marketing you’ve had UGC approved in?

K: Digital banners, email creative, social ads, Facebook canvas ads – any place we can find a good use for them.

In addition to UGC, do you still commission photography? Can you talk a bit about this mix of using CrowdRiff on social media and using other visual content?

K: It’s a learning process and it’ll be different for every DMO. The platform has really helped us gain those pictures that we can use in digital.

We’re building a great digital library of images and we’re going to be getting higher resolution images. Having a social library also allows us the flexibility to change the creative more often, which we’ve never been able to do before.

How has CrowdRiff added value to your DMO?

M: We’re gaining a huge library of UGC photos. In the past, we’d sometimes use the same images for print and elsewhere, but with CrowdRiff we have so many photos to choose from. We’re at a point now where we don’t need to replicate anything.

Have you had anyone in the community respond to your use of UGC?

K: It’s funny you should ask, because we ended up meeting with a prominent local firm that focuses on visuals. We used the term “user-generated content” in the meeting with this individual and they asked us to clarify what it meant. We thought, “Wait a minute – we thought you were the expert!”

Visual content to us is real people and real places. Visuals to them are more graphical in nature.


M: We’ve had positive feedback. Not just about using the photos, but on social media in general. Engagement has been way up since we began using it and that’s great to see.

A: Our business is all about relationships with other people and that’s one of the benefits we hear about a lot. Certainly, you want people to have that communication and human engagement. That’s why we travel – to meet other people and see new places.

You’ve been a CrowdRiff power-user for a while now. What’s next for you in the coming year? Any dream projects you’d like to be able to do?

K: We’re also looking forward to what’s next. We’re planning to launch an app and we’re using the API code offered by CrowdRiff to give our app’s social gallery the best appearance possible.

A: We’re excited to see the app, as well, and we’re looking forward to working with you on it!

And that’s a wrap!

It was a pleasure speaking to Krista and Matt. Among the many reasons they love to incorporate UGC visuals into their digital marketing, Sioux Falls appreciates the ability to share the authentic experiences of the real people who visit their city.

We’re excited to be a part of Sioux Falls CVB’s future visual marketing efforts, and are happy to them promote their destination with more visuals and less words.

Header photo courtesy of Kris Horvath. 

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How Visit Houston Used Art, Food & Influencers to Rebrand as a Top-Tier Leisure Destination

Posted on by Courtney Malinas

As the county’s fourth largest city, Houston never really had to work too hard to attract visitors in the past.

Its size and location alone were always enough to draw business travelers to conferences and conventions downtown, fellow Texans from surrounding cities and towns, as well as a steady stream of Mexican visitors who often traveled north to shop or visit American relatives.


As a result the city’s destination marketing organization, Visit Houston, focused much of its efforts on expanding its partnerships with local businesses, knowing that the travelers would come after.

However, when a couple years ago Visit Houston realigned with the Houston First Corporation, a local government corporation, together they were able to drastically increase the DMO’s budget and resources. Then they began to rethink the angle they were promoting Houston.

Shifting Gears to Attract Leisure Travelers

“When this department was created and given a separate budget we renewed our commitment to promoting Houston as a leisure destination,” said Pilar Florez, the Director of Tourism for Visit Houston. “The whole image of Houston as a leisure destination is a relatively new initiative.”

Though a majority of the city’s 20 million annual visitors live within driving distance approximately 17% are international. Visit Houston continues to target Americans in cities as far away as Chicago and New York, but were concerned that they were losing market share from one key international demographic.

“We’ve received over two million visitors from Mexico as of 2016,” said Florez. “Our second largest international market is Canada, which is about 120,000 visitors, so you can see the difference is pretty large.”

“People were very familiar with Houston, but the younger demographic were not so sold on the city, because there were other leisure destinations like Las Vegas and San Diego and Los Angeles that were doing a lot of promotion. We wanted to capture those younger new travelers.”

Transforming the city’s reputation into a true leisure destination required a completely new strategy, distinct from anything Visit Houston had attempted in the past.

“We wanted to revamp our approach to communications with the Spanish speaking market,” said Florez. “We needed something friendlier and welcoming — like our city.”

Enter: Hola Houston!

In order to connect better with Mexican travelers in their own language, Visit Houston launched a Spanish-language travel marketing campaign titled “Hola Houston” in 2016, which included a new website: HolaHouston.com. The organization used both traditional and social media marketing to promote the new website, and build an online following.

“We do these in-market activations to bring our own talent and share it with the people there,” said Florez. “We bring chefs from Houston to Mexico to showcase the cuisine, we bring artists from Houston to Mexico to do murals in Mexico, and not just Mexico City but throughout the country.”

hola houston san miguel

Inviting Influencers to Rediscover the City 

Visit Houston also partnered with a Mexico-based public relations agency to help onboard influencers south of the border to promote the Hola Houston campaign.

“We identified the passion points for the city first, and then with the help of our agency we identified a few people that were strong in those areas, and then we proposed the opportunity, and they were very excited about it,” said Florez.

“[These influencers] were excited to rediscover a destination they thought they were very familiar with, which has been to me the most interesting part of the project.”

This influencer marketing strategy is built around a Spanish slogan that translates to “there’s a Houston for you.” Hola Houston invited three influencers representing healthy lifestyles, outdoor activities and nightlife. All three were brought to Houston for three days and asked to produce six social media posts — and all three exceeded that requirement.

Over that three day visit, Hola Houston achieved nearly 10 million impressions in their target market, and all three influencers have returned for subsequent visits.

Each can be found on the Hola Houston Facebook page exploring their favorite parts of the city in videos, photos and blog posts, as well as actively engaging with their own sizable social media following.

The influencers had the experience Hola Houston was trying to provide an entire country of visitors that had been coming to the city for years without experiencing much of what it had to offer. “A lot of brands are looking for these marketing influencers, but I think we were the first ones and probably the only ones at that time engaging with influencers in Mexico,” she said.

This year the campaign will invite two more, each representing a gender-specific itinerary for the city, such as showcasing shopping hotspots for women and sporting activities for men. 

Lasting Results of Visit Houston’s Brand Refresh

Since the launch of Hola Houston in March of 2016 tourism traffic from Mexico has increased by 300,000 visitors annually, though Florez says the campaign has also helped attract more Spanish-speaking Americans as well as visitors from central and South America.

The website has also seen a 17% uptick from last year and though Visit Houston began 2016 with what Florez admits is a low 13,000 followers on Facebook, the Spanish-language account is now followed by over 110,000.

“The campaign has been really successful, we think that we can continue benefitting from the same message for at least another year,” she said. “We did lots of activations last year and those are the things that we need to reinvent just to keep it fresh, but the message and the brand will continue to be the face of our consumer facing brand in Mexico and other Spanish speaking markets.”

Mural images courtesy of Visit Houston.

 

Interested in more travel marketing campaigns? This eBook is for you:

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Lonely Planet partners with CrowdRiff to bring visitor visuals into digital Tourism Solutions

Posted on by Dan Holowack

Tourism boards can amplify their online footprint through an innovative new partnership between Lonely Planet and CrowdRiff, pairing the experts in travel with the leading visual marketing platform for travel and tourism brands.

Lonely Planet’s Digital Tourism Solutions program provides new and inventive ways for destinations to reach travelers on Lonelyplanet.com. Utilizing CrowdRiff’s technology allows destinations the ability to publish curated traveler photos and videos to their Lonely Planet destination pages, bringing authentic visitor content together with Lonely Planet’s trusted editorial.  Lonely Planet’s Tourism Solutions program  is part of an ongoing effort by the global travel brand to grow its content offering across all media for travelers to ensure that they have access to the best travel content on the globe.

Lonely Planet is excited to officially launch Tourism Solutions with our first tourism partner and neighbor, Visit Franklin. “Tourism Solutions is an innovative product offering to connect local destinations to our engaged, global audience”, said Daniel Houghton, CEO of Lonely Planet.

“We love working alongside great brands and are excited to participate in this partnership between Lonely Planet and CrowdRiff to showcase the best visual content from Franklin to travelers looking to be inspired to visit,” said Josh Collins, Digital Communications Manager at Visit Franklin.

“Lonely Planet’s destination page for Franklin, Tennessee makes a memorable first impression, and gives visitors everything they need to plan a visit to our community.”

“Now, tourism brands can put their visitors and locals front and center on the most trusted travel content site in the world,” said Dan Holowack, CEO of CrowdRiff. “Visit Franklin is a great example of how visual stories can bring a destination to life, and together with Lonely Planet, share this story globally.”

About Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world’s number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we’ve printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You’ll also find our content on lonelyplanet.com, mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Visit us at lonelyplanet.com and follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/lonelyplanet), Twitter (@lonelyplanet), Instagram (Instagram.com/lonelyplanet) and Snapchat (@lonelyplanet).

About CrowdRiff

CrowdRiff is a visual marketing platform for sourcing user-generated and owned visuals and publishing them to digital and offline marketing channels. Its customers include Colorado Tourism, Destination B.C. and Visit Franklin. To date the company has processed over 100 million photos and videos for travel and tourism brands. Learn more at www.crowdriffv2.wpengine.com or follow CrowdRiff on Twitter & Instagram @crowdriff.

New! Embed single photos and videos into your website and blog posts

Posted on by Amrita Gurney

We love photo galleries, as do most destination marketers, but sometimes, you want to put the spotlight on a single photo, not a group.

CrowdRiff now makes this easy with our single embed feature. With CrowdRiff you can select an individual photo or video from your CrowdRiff collection and embed it into any web page, in seconds.

You can see this in action in our recent post on Travel Manitoba’s award-winning social media account.

3 things you’ll love about this new feature:

  1. Now, you can grab the embed code while you are working in CrowdRiff, rather than having to go to the social network and track it down.
  2. You can include your own commissioned or stock photos in your single embed, showcasing everything from the stunning waterfall shot by a pro photographer to the selfie you took with locals at a summer festival
  3. You can caption your uploaded photo with your own editorial content, a great way to give credit to the photographer, influencer or videographer you are working with

Need some inspiration on what you can do with single embedded photos and videos? Here are some ideas:

Tell a story chronologically, for example,  a procession of icebergs passing through your community. (Wow!)

Do a themed blog series putting the spotlight on your local chefs, with each blog post featuring one chef and how they put together their signature dish.

Take your readers on a visual tour of a new museum or neighbourhood.

The possibilities are endless! Want to learn more? If you’re new to CrowdRiff, get in touch and we’ll give you a personalized walkthrough. Already a CrowdRiff customer? Awesome. Your Customer Success Manager is here to help.

Sheep View: How The Faroe Islands Created a Tourism Sensation On A Shoestring Budget

Posted on by Elizabeth Ching

It all began with the goal of getting the Faroe Islands on the map — literally.

The little known island nation, made up of 18 small volcanic landmasses halfway between Iceland, Norway and Scotland, totals less than 1,400 square kilometers, and is too small to be included on most world maps.

In 2012 the country’s tourism board set aside a budget equal to less than $340,000 USD for its small team of six, with the lofty goal of doubling its tourism industry by 2020 and securing its place on one very specific map.

“We know that Google Maps and Google Street View is synonymous with the world map today, that’s what everyone uses, and we were not on Google Street View, which is why we wanted to see if we could get them to come here,” said Guðrið Højgaard, the Director of Visit Faroe Islands.

The resulting campaign, Sheep View, was perhaps the biggest viral hit in the tourism industry of the past decade.

Launched in July of 2016 with a shoestring budget and the season’s tourism industry on the line, the Visit Faroe Islands team strapped cameras to a few of the country’s 80,000 sheep, and allowed users to interact with the resulting videos.

“We have more sheep than people; they are everywhere in they Faroe Islands, they walk the streets, so they were an easy solution,” said Højgaard, adding that the human population of the islands is less than 50,000. The campaign, which can be found at Sheepview360.com, features both a video blog about the project and actual footage gathered by sheep.

The effort, explains Højgaard, was largely a marketing ploy to get Google and the rest of the world’s attention, rather than an actual effort to map the island using sheep.  

“At the end we got more than 2 billion impressions and about 50 million euros [approximately $56 million USD] in PR value. The goal was both to get more attention, that was the primary goal, and the second was to get Google Street View. And we got both.”

Suddenly, the Faroe Islands is on the World’s Radar

After discovering the campaign, Google’s official Twitter account, which boasts more than 18 million followers, began Tweeting about their intentions to visit the island. Soon after major international media outlets began following the story of the underdog nation fighting for its place on the map.

“We were suddenly so busy, we were on the media all the time, we were working 24 seven just to answer all the questions from all the international media, and we were very surprised that the reaction was so big.”

Højgaard adds, “Of course we thought we had a great idea, but working with PR you never know.”

Only two months after launching the campaign a plane carrying five Google representatives and Google Street View cameras touched down in the Faroe Islands for the first time.

“They have been making the footage for some time,” said Højgaard. “The country will be put on Google Street View quite soon.”

Staying True to its Roots

The effort has also pushed the country’s tourism industry beyond its accommodation capacity, at least in the summer season, but Højgaard doesn’t anticipate more hotels being built to accommodate the sudden influx.

“It’s a positive problem because you can always build yourself out of it, but at the same time we want to keep the islands authentic and unique and small. People come here because they want to be with nature, and tranquility, and to not be around too many people.”

As a result Visit Faroe Island hasn’t spent any of its 2017 marketing budget yet. Højgaard says that she and her team are already prepping their next project for launch this autumn, but doesn’t expect the same viral reach as Sheep View.

As Visit Faroe Islands works to keep the tranquility of the country intact the buzz about its enormously successful campaign continues to grow to this day. Visit Faroe Islands’ relatively low budget campaign is cleaning up this marketing industry awards season, leapfrogging the accolades of organizations with significantly more resources and brand recognition.

One Year Later: Lessons Learned from Sheep View 

Sheep View surpassed hospitality giants Airbnb and Marriott as well as well funded tourism destinations like London and Partners and Destination Canada in the 2017 World Media Awards, where it received the top prize in the travel and tourism category and second place overall across all seven marketing categories.

The destination marketing organization’s project has also won four Epica awards, four Creative Circle Awards in Copenhagen, were the top winners at the Danish Digital awards, took home a Golden Bear in Berlin and the top PR award in Sweden. Hot off the presses, Sheep View just won 3 Lions at the 2017 Cannes Advertising Festival – one gold, one silver and one bronze!

Højgaard says that if she’s learned anything from the success of the campaign it’s that when it comes to marketing a destination, big budgets and brand recognition are no match for authenticity and sincerity.

“You should focus on something unique about your destination, and then it’s just planning, planning, planning,” she said. “Sheep is something we had in our destination, that told the whole story. It was a very simple story, kind of a David and Goliath story, but being sincere and at the same time taking a local perspective, that’s what made this story unique.”

Højgaard explains the country isn’t home to major tourist attractions, world-renowned restaurants or a vibrant nightlife; it’s home to some passionate people, and a heck of a lot of sheep. With this project, however, the country has proven that that’s all one needs to secure their place on the map.

 

Interested in more amazing marketing campaigns? This eBook is for you:

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How 5 Cities Promote Their Destinations to Sports Fans

Posted on by Elizabeth Ching

Whether it’s baseball, hockey, soccer, or football, DMOs with an active sports scene know that local teams can inspire a cult-like following.

Both diehard fanatics and casual fans get hyped when their favorite team is doing well. Sports have a special ability to really draw people into the experience – and it’s not just the locals who come out to the games.

If DMOs can harness the enthusiasm of sports fans, they can attract visitors from all over. These visitors might come for the game, but they stick around to experience the rest of what your destination has to offer.

So, how can DMOs use local sports culture to promote their destination?

Let’s take a look at five DMOs that are successfully leveraging sports tourism to attract more visitors.

1 | Destination Cleveland: Curating sports conversations in one place

Destination Cleveland brands itself as a great sports destination from the moment you land on the homepage, with bold fonts, colors, and liberal amounts of sports imagery. There’s a calendar of upcoming sporting events, and tickets available for purchase right from the homepage.

Their message is loud and clear: If you’re a sports fan, Cleveland is a city you definitely want to visit.

Going one step further, Cleveland curates the sports conversations happening on social media into one exciting soical hub.

Created using CrowdRiff’s API, their social hub curates live Tweets and Instagram content from local teams, so that curious web visitors can find all the latest information about sports in Cleveland in one easy place. 

cleveland sports tourism

2 | Visit Pittsburgh: Featuring fanbases of each team

Typically, destinations with multiple sports teams list all of them on one page along with a blurb and a link to the team’s website. This is a great starting point, but Visit Pittsburgh takes it a step further with dedicated pages for each of its teams.

These individual landings pages allow them to use targeted messaging and visuals to build up even more hype about the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates.

What really elevates each listing, though, is the galleries of amazing social photos they include of excited fans at games. When you see images of fellow fans cheering on your favorite teams at stadiums and fields, you can’t help but connect.

These pages also include plenty of links to relevant attractions, so fans can get pumped for the rest of their visit beyond the game itself.

Pittsburgh publishes a ton of content designed to inspire fans to start planning their trip.

Not only do they blog about upcoming games for sports spectators, but they also have a website with resources on sports facilities that meeting planners can book for group events.

sports pittsburgh crowdriff

By providing in-depth information on nearby amenities and attractions, Pittsburgh makes it easy for anyone to book a sporting event and have a great time in their city.

Make it easy to plan, and they will come!

3 | Boston: Travel tips & resources for every sports fans

One of the most important aspects of planning a trip to an away-game is figuring out where to stay. Fans who come primarily to catch a game want accommodations near the stadium.

That’s why Boston put together a map that specifically highlights hotels around Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox.

Hotels-near-Fenway boston sports tourism

Boston also provides really helpful resources for sports fans on a page devoted to the city’s professional sports teams. Here, fans can scroll down to their favorite team and read up details on places to stay, stadium tours, and other related information.

boston sports tourism

4 | NYC & Company: Creating content tailored to different types of fans

If you’re not sure how much content sports tourism can inspire, check out what NYC & Company has been publishing lately.

They create a lot of sports-related content, including articles and guides on the city’s various home teams and popular sports.

NYC-sports-content

We love that so much of their content is accessible and inclusive, even if you’re not a sports buff. NYC wants visitors to come out to their games, so they provide information that appeals to fans with varying degrees of sports knowledge.

For example, “NYC Sports 101” is a handy little resource that acts as a cheat sheet to New York’s various sports teams.

NYC-sports-101

The entire site’s design is visually-driven. The content includes plenty of photos and videos to give visitors a first-hand look at the action taking place at games all over the city.

These images encourage visitors to continue exploring the site, learn more about each team, and buy into the entire culture that surrounds New York City sports tourism.

5 | Go NOLA: Promoting sports through video storytelling

Go NOLA uses video to give potential visitors a glimpse into the destination’s vibrant sports culture.

Their video storytelling can be both entertaining and enlightening. It gives viewers a taste of the energy levels at a typical game and introduces them to New Orleans locals.

The clip promoting the Zephyrs (the local baseball team) promises that visitors will get a feel for New Orleans and invites parents to bring their kids to a game for a day of family-friendly fun.


By promoting activities like kayaking and golf, Go NOLA’s YouTube channel also appeals to outdoor enthusiasts who want to stay active on their trip. 

New Orleans creates blog content to encourage sports fans to check out other local activities, including local walking tours, breweries, museums, and live Jazz. These visitors come to town for a specific event, but they want to explore the rest of the city once the game lets out.

Now the ball’s in your court.

We hope these five cities have inspired you with new ideas to market your destination to sports fans. The most enticing sports destinations use visuals to pack a punch, and get fans hyped to visit.

And remember, the easier your sports resources easy to find the more interest you’ll be able to stir up.

Ready to attract more sports fans? Go get’em!

If you’re looking for other noteworthy marketing campaigns, this eBook is for you:

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How Travel Manitoba Curated an Award-Winning Social Media Presence

Posted on by Elizabeth Ching

If social media activity could serve as a measure for civic pride, then you’d be hard pressed to find a Canadian province whose residents are more proud than Manitobans.  

Ranked 6th by population amongst the country’s 13 provinces and territories, and boasting little more than 3.5% of the country’s overall headcount, according to the 2016 census, its citizenry have produced some of the most spectacular images and social media content of Canadian life one can find on the internet.

Support from Fellow Manitobans is Key

“We have a very tapped-in local community; they’re very eager to share with us,” said Nisha Tuli, the Senior Content Marketing Manager for Travel Manitoba. “I think a lot of it comes from the younger demographic who are growing up here realizing this is a really awesome place and want to show it off.”

That highly engaged community of citizens and amateur photographers has become a vital resource for Travel Manitoba, which boasts nearly 60,000 followers on its Instagram channel. Though historically not a top destination for first-time visitors, the Travel Manitoba marketing team hopes its social media efforts will show visitors in neighboring provinces and beyond what they’re missing, while helping to build engagement and pride among its locals.

Their Instagram is largely used to showcase the best shots of anything tagged with the #ExploreMB hashtag, ranging from beluga whales and the Northern Lights to ballparks and local foodie hotspots.

Travel Manitoba isn’t the only one pushing these breathtaking images to the world through social media. Some of its most prominent contributors have huge followings of their own, and the sharing of resources helps bolster the profiles of both parties.

“When we share someone’s photos and they thank us and tag us it just helps perpetuate our content through their friends and followers,” explains Tuli.

The destination marketing organization appreciated one of its regular social media contributors so much that they recently hired him as an in-house digital content specialist. The new hire, Austin MacKay, regularly shares breathtakingly beautiful (and often seemingly impossible to capture) images of his native province with the 18,000 followers of his Instagram account.

 

“We’ve been following his work and we know he knows and loves this province, and sure enough he’ll be starting with us in a couple of weeks,” said Tuli.

Instagram is Relevant Beyond Social Media

To further engage with their online community the destination marketing organization has run various social media contests and campaigns using user-generated content, decorating blog posts, visitor guides and calendars with images acquired from social media.

Breanne Sewards, Travel Manitoba’s Editorial Content Specialist writes content for their blog, ManitobaHot, taking good advantage of Instagram photos.

“Making those galleries for the blog with CrowdRiff has been a huge time saver, because before we had to sort through all the Facebook pages of various businesses to find usable shots. Now if I want to write about ’10 Restaurants to Eat At This Summer’ I just look up each restaurant on CrowdRiff and I can easily compile a gallery of nice food shots with user-generated content.”

Travel Manitoba is also working on publishing a new magazine using some of those eye-catching social media shots, and continues to find unique ways to bring its online presence to life in the non-digital world.

“A couple of years ago there was a coffee table Instagram book made with something like 200 photos,” said Tuli, adding that the book was given away to media and other visitors as a free promotional item. “To this day people are still asking for them, and we’ve run out.”

Travel Manitoba is now in the process of curating more images in order to put together another book in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation.  

“Throughout the year we’ve been collecting photos, and the idea is to put that into a book at the end of the year,” said Tuli. “People loved the first book so much we may have to consider selling the next one,” she joked.

The Trick to Curating an Wanderlust-Worthy Feed

While the local community produces some amazing content it is ultimately up to Travel Manitoba’s staff to curate these images onto its channels and build them out with supporting content.

“I have to weigh beauty versus originality, so if it’s something I’ve never seen on Instagram before then I’ll definitely try and post it, even if it’s not the best photo — whereas if it’s something iconic it has to be really good to be posted,” said Sewards, adding that the account has been tagged in over 200,000 photos.

“We also like to try and have a variety of urban and rural, outdoor versus indoor,” adds Tuli. “We’re very aware of that aspect when we do any kind of content.”

The Travel Manitoba curating effort has been so successful that it received CrowdRiff’s 2017 VIZZI Award for Visual Influence in the “Best Social Media Visuals” category.

“We feel pretty good about our Instagram account right now,” said Tuli. “It’s definitely our fastest growing social channel and the one that gets the most engagement. It’s also very positive and loving community, which isn’t always the case on social media.”

For a destination that has always struggled for recognition amongst better known Canadian destinations, Sewards and Tuli hope the growing social media buzz can help show potential visitors the unparalleled splendor of Manitoba, while continuing to grow civic pride and engagement amongst its locals.

Header image credit: Luna Sin Estrellas

Recommended Reading
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How to Make Your Visitor’s Guide Come to Life with User-Generated Content [Video]

Posted on by Elizabeth Ching

Want to take your visitor’s guide to the next level?

Photos from your locals and visitors can transform any of your print materials into authentic and well-trusted traveler resources. We’ve seen some DMOs starting to sprinkle in pages of user-generated in their guides.

But have you thought of making user-generated content the heart of your visitor’s guide?

When we went to the 2017 Digital Tourism Think Tank conference in Copenhagen earlier this year, we created pocket-sized guides to the city for attendees — and acquired all the visuals from Instagram!

It was a big hit in the DMO community, so we’d love to share our process with you, and hopefully give you some ideas for your own visitor’s guide. Check it out! 

 

Keep a guide on hand!

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What DMOs with Smaller Budgets Can Learn From Yakima Valley Tourism

Posted on by Elizabeth Ching

We recently hosted a live Q&A with Jared Yoakum of Yakima Valley Tourism, a small but mighty northwest DMO in a region with a rich agritourism industry.

Jared has been a customer of CrowdRiff for a couple of years now and was happy to share his advice for smaller destinations that are marketing on a budget or with limited resources.

What can smaller DMOs and tourism brands learn from Yakima Valley Tourism?

1| Small teams have the ability to be agile and efficient

Smaller DMOs often have tiny marketing teams – but that doesn’t mean they can’t pull off impressive campaigns with real-world results.

Yakima Valley Tourism’s marketing department is 2.5 people. It consists of a part-time social media manager, a graphic designer/web designer, and Jared, the marketing manager.

As a small DMO, it’s crucial that each team member spending their time valuably – which means better use of resources, less busy work, and more collaboration.

That’s one of the reasons Jared shares an office with his web designer, a fact he is grateful for every day. Anytime they want to test something small or make a little change, they can come together and solve problems quickly and efficiently. They’re able to make same-day updates without exchanging dozens of email or waiting on an agency to implement what they want to see.

2| You don’t have to be everything to everyone

Yakima Valley is a relatively small destination in the grand scheme of things. There are 90,000 people in the biggest city and 250,000 people in the entire region.

Yet Jared’s team has helped make a name for their destination as one of the foremost areas for agritourism.

How did they pull it off?

By identifying their pillars – a robust wine country, farm fresh produce, and craft beer – and building landing pages and microsites around each.

Jared emphasizes the importance of knowing who your audience is and catering to their interests. While it’s great to experiment in your marketing, it doesn’t pay off if you’re forcing the issue.

For example, Yakima Valley has wonderful scenery but doesn’t try to compete with the many nearby destinations that offer outdoor adventure tourism. Instead, they focus heavily on agritourism.

Additionally, since the Yakima Valley airport only flies three times a day from Seattle, they don’t market on an international level. Instead, they specifically target the drive market coming from Seattle, Idaho, and the Northwest.

The lesson here? Focus on your strengths and build your marketing strategy around them.

3| Create opportunities to showcase the voices of your community

Travel is a very positive experience and most people posting photos on social are doing it to share their experience – whether it’s a trip, meal, or event. 

One of the reasons Yakima Valley has successfully grown their Instagram following is that they always inform people when they’re featuring their photos. They use CrowdRiff to tell everyone exactly where their content is being displayed, whether it’s in the wine country gallery or on the homepage.

 “We’re still small potatoes compared to a lot of the big guys, but it’s exploded for us. In a year, we went from 1500-1700 likes to over 5000 now.”

“People are very excited that they’re acknowledged,” says Jared. “We’ve seen screenshots of our website on Instagram because people are excited [to see] their photo on there.”

4| Even small destinations have volumes of quality user-generated content

Yakima Valley Tourism used to spend tons of money on professional photo shoots that didn’t paint an authentic picture of their destination.

Though they still commission photographers for print ads, every page on their website now hosts its own UGC gallery. Jared spends less than ten minutes a day quickly and easily adding awesome new photos to the appropriate galleries.

Yakima valley homepage

One thing that initially surprised him was just how much UGC is out there. On average, Yakima Valley sees half a million visitors each year — so Jared was blown away by the amount of content CrowdRiff surfaced.

“The day we opened CrowdRiff we had something like 30,000 photos to choose from and it just continues to grow from there. It surprises us constantly.”

As Jared puts it, CrowdRiff pulls in much more visual content than your typical hashtag search, including some photos you likely wouldn’t discover on your own.

You don’t need a large budget to do great marketing.

If you’re interested to know more about how Yakima Valley has used CrowdRiff to stretch their marketing budget, see their customer story right here, or watch the full live Q&A.

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Drumroll please…the 2017 VIZZI Award Winners!

Posted on by Amrita Gurney

Earlier this year we announced a new award for the travel and tourism industry — the VIZZI Awards for Visual Influence. We wanted to recognize the work of destination marketers who were models of great visual storytelling.

Entries came in from around the world, giving our judges the difficult job of choosing the winners.

So, without further ado, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2017 VIZZI Awards.

Best Social Media Visuals – Travel Manitoba

 

travel manitoba instagram

From the judges:

I chose Travel Manitoba as having the best use of social media visuals as their content told a story that piqued my curiosity as a traveler. Looking at their feed, the overall visuals go together and provides a balanced experience. Travel Manitoba executes incredible content, and it was great to see the feedback from their audience through engaged comments.

Best Video Storytelling – GoNOLA

From the judges:

I chose Go NOLA as having the best video storytelling as their personality and branding shined through their video content. It felt fun, playful, and invited me in to be interested in what New Orleans had to offer as a destination. The first video I watched sparked my interest so much so that it had me clicking through their video playlist to view more.

Best Visual Website – tie! – Travel Kansas and Visit Franklin

 

travel kansas website

 

visit franklin homepage

 

From the judges:

Imagine being a kid in grade school expecting a test and instead taking an unexpected field trip to a nearby place filled with horses, country stores, musicians and sunlit fields. The Visit Franklin website showers you with that type of surprise, with images as warm as summer rain. The trick here, I think, is smart image curation. Each photo alone isn’t brilliant, but the web page design collection gives you windows to Franklin’s soul.

I chose Kansas Tourism as having the best visual website as the first impression stuck with me. It was clean, precise, and had stunning visuals that shared their story. The interaction on the website was clear and with directional buttons, I could find the information I needed in a few clicks. The visuals felt warm and inviting, making me want to visit Kansas.

Visual Influencers

We want to give a thunderous round of applause to all the brands who entered and shared their inspiring examples of great visual storytelling. And a special thanks to our judges Ben Kunz, Nick Hall and Jessica Wright for their time and insight.

See you next year!

How Visit Pittsburgh Transforms Old Perceptions of the City with User-Generated Content

Posted on by Melissa Cartaginese

When people’s perceptions of a place don’t match its reality, it helps to do more showing than telling.

That’s the strategy of Visit Pittsburgh, the destination marketing organization tasked with replacing the old Steel Town image with the reality of an exciting urban city on the rise.

“Pittsburgh has always had a negative reputation as a smoky steel city, so why would anyone want to go there?” asks Molly Allwein, the Digital Marketing Manager at Visit Pittsburgh. “We’re always working on overcoming that perception, and once we get people here they’re always astounded.”

Though many associate the city with smoke stacks and steel workers, Pittsburgh has been collecting countless awards and accolades over the past couple of years that tell a wildly different story. In the first few months of 2017 alone it’s been named one of the best cities for architecture, one of the most kid friendly cities, one of the best foodie cities, a top 10 budget destination, the most underrated city in America, a top 10 city for STEM professionals and many, many more.

“If we can’t get someone physically to the location to show them how beautiful it is, than we want to show them virtually as much as we can.”

The Visit Pittsburgh website aims to put that more accurate picture of the city on full display. So their site is packed with eye-catching images, ranging from skylines captured by professional photographers to meals and events captured by everyday locals and visitors.

“What we really like about CrowdRiff and user-generated content is that it’s other people talking about Pittsburgh. It’s not coming from us as a sales and marketing organization, we’re giving the platform to people who have been here and want to rave about the city.”

Leveraging user-generated content on the blog

The mantra of sharing the website with locals and visitors goes well beyond photography. One of the websites’ premier features is its blog, and each post is packed with photos and visuals. Many are even written by guest bloggers.  

“We don’t change a lot of the information on our main website and our landing pages that frequently, so blogs allow us to be more nimble and agile and talk about the new exciting and upcoming things happening in the city,” says Allwein.

“The blog allows us to have a personality, and use guest writers in the community who just want to talk about the city.”

Though Visit Pittsburgh’s staff still contributes about half of the posts it leans heavily on guest bloggers and user-generated photos to give it more personality. The organization identifies local influencers in specific categories like food and family entertainment, and invites them to share their passion and expertise on the website.

“We write content for our website, for our visitors guides, for our events publications, and if the same people write the same content it’s all written the same way,” says Allwein. “This approach really allows us to shake things up and figure out what other people want to talk about.”

The goal, explains Allwein, is to bring the influencer’s audience to the Visit Pittsburgh website, while exposing its own visitors to local influencers. “We give them that platform to expand their audience and bring their audience over to our blog, so it works really well both ways,” she says.  

While the expertise of her staff and guest bloggers is a vital component of the blog, Allwein says that visuals are equally as important. As soon as a blogger submits a story idea Allwein gets to work sourcing photos using CrowdRiff. She’s incorporated galleries of user-generated content into as many posts as possible since first discovering CrowdRiff three years ago.

HOW VISIT PITTSBURGH TRANSFORMS OLD PERCEPTIONS OF THE CITY WITH USER-GENERATED CONTENT

“Everything is pointing to lower and lower attention spans for people reading digital content, and they spend more time on pages that have compelling visual images. CrowdRiff gives us unlimited access to photos that are new and relevant.”

Next steps for Visit Pittsburgh’s website

Allwein and her team are now hard at work at rebuilding the site, incorporating even more visuals and user-generated content to display the most up-to-date picture of what the city has to offer.

“We’re thinking of having some HTML5 video running in our large header images, we’re going to use the CrowdRiff Calls-to-Action in different locations on our new website, which we’re not really using right now, and along with that we’ll have related content modules, which will be image focused,” says Allwein.

Though the destination marketing organization is already using CrowdRiff quite heavily Allwein adds that she looks forward to exploring even more capabilities when the new website launches this autumn.

“We’re excited about the innovations that CrowdRiff is working on, because they’re always trying new things and staying ahead of the curve.”

Further reading:

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Announcing CrowdRiff’s Slack integration

Posted on by Amrita Gurney

We’re excited to share the latest in our growing ecosystem of integrations with CrowdRiff’s visual marketing platform.

 

Now, you can upload photos to CrowdRiff while you are on the go, using our new Slack app!

This integration will come in handy in lots of scenarios, like:

  • When you are taking photos at a local event
  • When you are working with influencers (have them share their photos directly into CrowdRiff)
  • Anytime you have photos on your phone that you want to put into CrowdRiff (i.e. too often to count!)

Want to see it in action? Get in touch and we’d love to show you.

How South African Tourism Mesmerizes Travelers with 24 Hours of Wow

Posted on by Courtney Malinas

South Africa is a land of diverse cultures, of world-class wines and breathtaking views, of mega metropolises and sun soaked coasts; all of which catch the average visitor completely by surprise. That is because when most people consider visiting the country they tend to focus on safari adventures, and little else.

In an effort to expose prospective tourists to the other wonders the country has to offer, South African Tourism had amassed an extensive library of content over the years, featuring clips and scenes that reach from the coastline to the cities to the safari lodges.


But without much awareness of the vast and diverse attractions that lay beyond the inland wilderness, South African Tourism had to come up with a clever way to educate travelers on the other wonders that await discovery.

“When they leave South Africa visitors are complete astounded by the breadth and depth of the experiences and the people that they meet.”

Dale Jooste, the Content Editor for South African Tourism explains, “We wanted to make people realize that you can pretty much do whatever your heart desires, whether you’re an active adventure traveler or you just like natural scenic beauty or you’re a foodie or you like big city energy. We wanted to find a way of showcasing that.”

Introducing South African Tourism’s 24 Hours of Wow Campaign

24 hours of wow south africa gif

“We looked at the massive increase of online video consumption and realized that would be a good place to start,” said Jooste.

The resulting microsite, 24 Hours of Wow, welcomes visitors with a clock face, and then presents some of the best attractions the country has to offer at each hour of the day. Every six seconds the clock moves ahead by an hour, displaying another activity, scene or attraction that’s available at that hour.

“The overall idea was that you could experience your own 24 hours in South Africa, with individual 6-second clips that you can choose depending on what your preferences were.”

The 24 Hours of Wow campaign then encourages visitors to build their own 24-hour adventure by mixing together video clips that are organized into six unique categories.

24 hours of wow south africa clock

Visitors can, for example, explore a morning at a café in the city, an afternoon of extreme sports in an outdoor playground, a sunset over the coastline and an evening soaking in the country’s vibrant culture. While they are encouraged to build their own 24-hour clock visitors can also let the “shuffle” option surprise them.

There are 144 individual video clips in all, each as diverse as the country itself. They include drone footage of coastlines, time lapses of sunsets, street performers, football games, rooftop patios, gourmet kitchens, vineyard tours, fishing adventures and much more.

Building and Launching the Microsite

Jooste estimates that about 60% of the content was already available in South African Tourism’s archive, with the remainder collected in the months leading up to the campaign launch in late October of 2016.

“Instead of putting just videos up on our website, which presupposes that people know about the experiences that are available, choosing to do it the way that we did encourages people to explore more.”

Jooste expanded, “Giving it to people in a way that is easily digestible but also encourages them to investigate a little bit more was really the strategic intention.”

Once launched the microsite, 24hoursofwow.southafrica.net, was promoted internally through programmatic ad buys, blog content and social media campaigns that targeted users based on their interests. Regional offices also developed physical campaigns and activations that targeted local consumers all over the world.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ22xHLhFto/?taken-by=meetsouthafrica

Jooste credits South African Tourism’s lead agency, FCB, for pursuing what she describes as an “incredibly technical build.” 

Since its launch the microsite has been visited over 600,000 times, with the average visitor spending approximately three minutes, though in months immediately following launch site visits averaged almost 10.

“It is a very unique navigation tool, and it’s one that, to my knowledge, has never been tried before,” said Jooste. “It effectively integrated those 24-hour streams across 144 clips to deliver something that is as bespoke a piece of communication as you can get.”

Though the bulk of the 24 Hours of Wow campaign currently lives on its own microsite, South African Tourism seeks to put the campaign at the front and center of a new main page that is currently under development.

“At the moment it’s more of a campaign site that then leads to tourism information,” explains Jooste. “The end goal is that it becomes integrated so that it’s all in one place, so you don’t need to navigate to the microsite to see the campaign or from the campaign to the tourism information.”

The campaign’s initial goal, to educate travelers about the breadth and variety of activities there are to do in South Africa, seems well accomplished. Now, visitors can immerse themselves in all the possibilities in the country, and put South Africa on the map beyond its great safari adventures.

Header Image Credit: @luc.luxton

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10 DMOs Getting Creative with Visual Content - Visual Influencers

Your Brand is an Experience, Not a Logo: 5 Lessons from Visit Franklin

Posted on by Shri Jamadagni

We recently hosted a joint webinar with Josh Collins of Visit Franklin, one of CrowdRiff’s very first customers!

Visit Franklin first partnered with CrowdRiff way back in 2014. As a destination marketer who wanted to develop his organization’s brand and connect with more visitors, Josh says choosing to work with CrowdRiff was a no-brainer for him and his team.

Josh-Collins

Since then, the good people at Visit Franklin have used our platform to source user-generated content (UGC) as part of their strategy to develop their brand image, build visual influence, and deliver powerful experiences that drive leads, visitors, and bookings.

What can other DMOs and tourism brands learn from Visit Franklin?

1 | Your locals are visual influencers

Showcasing UGC is an excellent way to attract more visitors to your destination – but the best visual influencers aren’t necessarily travelers who blog about or photograph their visit.

That’s because there are plenty of influencers who live right in the heart of your community. By encouraging locals to share their love of your destination, you’re giving a voice to those who are most passionate about your culture and lifestyle.

Josh encourages DMOs everywhere to engage with those who spend the most time in your destination. By inviting locals to share more photos on social media, you’re able to harness their passion and experiences to strengthen your own visual influence.

2 | Community is more valuable than competition

Like all smaller DMOs, Visit Franklin knows how it feels to be a little fish in a big pond.

Rather than viewing larger DMOs (with deeper pockets) as tough competition, Josh subscribes to, as he puts it, a “culture of abundance”.

Visit Franklin partners with nearby destinations and encourages ‘super users’ who love the brands to continue sharing lots of content. They even partnered with a talented fan as she transitioned from hobbyist to professional photographer.

Your visitors are coming from everywhere, so why wouldn’t you want to collaborate with other destinations? Keep an eye out for opportunities to form partnerships with local businesses, other DMOs, and travel brands.

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3 | Your brand is an experience, not a logo

In today’s world of digital marketing, there’s a ton of emphasis on increasing conversions.

But before you can convert your audience into visitors, you need to provide a taste of your destination to get them hooked.

Visual marketing plays a big role in building a sustainable brand and providing engaging experiences. Visit Franklin achieves this on its homepage and social media profiles by curating visuals that capture the atmosphere of its destination.

“Visit Franklin isn’t just about Franklin, Tennessee; it’s about the culture and the atmosphere and the experience.”

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His advice to fellow DMOs? Treat everyone you interact with online as a human being, not just a number.

“In our approach, visuals are one of the biggest keys to our success. We are not looking for a transaction between visitors. We want to inspire people to want to visit and ultimately develop a relationship with them.”

4 | People will shape your story, if you let them

Sharing visual UGC is all about encouraging and celebrating audience participation. Sometimes, this means giving up partial control of your brand’s story – and that’s a good thing!

Often when DMOs create a branded hashtag, they forget to look online to see what travelers are already using. Once Visit Franklin realized people were tagging travel pictures with #FranklinTN (instead of #VisitFranklin), they embraced their audience’s preference and adopted the new hashtag themselves.  

“If that’s the conversation [visitors are] already having, I don’t want to make them come to me. I want to go to where they are.”

The lesson here? Be willing to let your audience influence your brand.

Look at how travelers and locals are talking about your destination. What your customers already doing, saying, and sharing online?

Letting go of the story can be a bit scary, but it empowers your visitors to become storytellers themselves.

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5 | Don’t try to dominate the conversation

Whether your brand has a ton of social engagement or is still building up an audience, you shouldn’t try to force yourself into every conversation about your destination.

There’s no need to like reply to every single comment on every single visual – especially if your community is thriving and chatting amongst themselves.

Visit Franklin’s strategy is to listen to conversations and participate where it’s natural to do so.

Josh illustrates this with a dinner party analogy: If everyone is talking around the table, it would be uncomfortable if one person tried to interject themselves into every conversation.

Certainly, it’s important to jump in sometimes on social media, especially if there’s a misunderstanding or questions that need to be answered. But it’s better to authentically connect with a few followers than to try to respond to everyone.

Hear from Josh Collins himself

With years of digital marketing experience, Josh Collins has a brain to pick and valuable insights to share.

In this webinar, we opened the floor for destination marketers to ask their questions in a live Q&A. Hear from Josh himself as he shares how he approaches marketing at Visit Franklin.

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If you’d like to connect with Josh, you can find him on Twitter or Instagram.