CASSIES 2011 Cases. Brand/Case: Get the Local Buzz from Montréal Insiders. Winner: Events, Seasonal & Short-Term Bronze

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1 1 CASSIES 2011 Cases Brand/Case: Get the Local Buzz from Montréal Insiders Winner: Events, Seasonal & Short-Term Bronze Client Credits: Tourism Montréal Emmanuelle Legault Directrice, Communications et Relations internationales Agency Credits: Sid Lee Partners: Jimmy Lee Crossover Notes: All winning cases contain lessons that cross over from one case to another. David Rutherford has been identifying these as Crossover Notes since CASSIES1997. The full set for CASSIES 2011 can be downloaded from the Case Library section at Crossover Note 10. Crossover Note 16. Crossover Note 19. Crossover Note 28. Conventional Wisdom should it be challenged? When a campaign stumbles. Great minds think alike. Media Learning. To see creative, go to the Case Library Index and click on the additional links beside the case.

2 2 Section I BASIC INFORMATION Business Results Period (Consecutive Months): May 2009 Aug 2009 Start of Advertising/Communication Effort: April 2009 Base Period as a Benchmark: Previous Year Geographic Area Covered: Annual Budget Range: US (NYC, Boston, California), Canada (Toronto) $2-3 million Executive Summary: In the tumultuous economic climate of 2009, with increased competition and a decrease in travel bookings, we had to optimise the marketing efforts of Tourism Montréal. The main objectives were to increase the notoriety of Montréal as a destination for a short urban stay and to guarantee a continuous year-round presence by increasing conversions. To do this, we invested 100% in the web, creating a 2.0 campaign that aimed to help potential travellers experience the city in an authentic way. The key idea based on the insight that no one wants to be a tourist nowadays was to invite consumers to discover the city through the locals who live there. By entering influential online communities we encouraged conversations that revealed the true spirit and hidden treasures of Montréal. We created a platform on the Tourism Montréal website that was fuelled by five bloggers from the city. Each represented a different aspect of Montréal (Girls Getaway; Nightlife; Gay Life; Gastronomy; Arts & Culture) by sharing his or her experience of the city in the most personal way possible. This resulted in highly credible and authentic content, amounting to 360 articles, 435 photos, 700 comments and a community of more than 4,000 Facebook fans and 7,000 Twitter followers. This created remarkable buzz, engaging visitors in authentic, intimate and personal conversations. Moreover, it significantly increased the digital footprint of Tourism Montréal through in-links, content, PR, and more so, helped to improve the city s organic search engine rankings. And so, even while working with a 26% decrease in media investment and a difficult economic context, we managed to increase all indicators of performance.

3 3 Section II SITUATION ANALYSIS a) Overall Assessment A Top International Destination Montréal is a top international destination. Dynamic, modern and welcoming, it s second only to Toronto in Canadian tourist volume, with seven million visitors in But even though the city has much to offer, the volume of tourists has stagnated since Facing Strong Competition Competition has evolved in recent years as cities like Mexico City, Dubai and Seoul have joined the ranks of New York, London and Paris. Nevertheless, these cities continue to promote themselves in similar ways, relying largely on their attractions. Unfortunately, Montréal s attractions fail to entice consumers in the same way that these larger cities do. The challenge for Montréal is to show the local spirit of the city and expand tourist flow beyond the festival season. Changing Consumer Behaviour Today s travellers have altered the way they plan. They increasingly use the internet and social media to prepare, plan, book and even share their travels. Studies have shown that 80% of travellers plan and book their travels online. They pool information from many sources: brochures, blogs, travel guides, forums and other forms of social media. In sum, nobody nowadays wants to be a tourist. Crossover Note 19. But, with the wealth of content and the fragmentation of platforms, it becomes harder to find information produced by someone you can identify with and most of the information remains very touristy. There was opportunity here for Montréal, in the way that it communicated. Difficult Economic Context 2009 posed particularly difficult conditions for destination marketers, as the recession reduced the consumers propensity to travel This reduced the communications budget for Tourism Montréal. Considerable Challenge In years past, Tourism Montréal did much to promote the city, but its efforts had reached maturity. Crossover Note 16. The challenge was to understand what influences modern travellers. The crucial question: how to use communications more effectively to reinforce Montréal s reputation as a great destination and increase tourist conversion rates in the face of an economic crisis?

4 4 b) Resulting Business Objectives Increase the notoriety of Montréal as a short urban stay destination as well as to ensure a continuous annual presence of tourists Enrich the city s reputation by offering a tangible experience of Montréal Maximize the traffic and interaction on the Tourism Montréal website and improve search results Increase the conversion rate for leads Section III STRATEGIC THINKING a) Analysis and Insight The target audience was mainly in North America, and in Ontario specifically. We realized that traditional packaged advertising had not helped them connect with the city on an emotional level; that they were not seeing an authentic version of the city. Crossover Note 10. b) Communication Strategy Enrich the Perception of the City: The best way to fuel consumers expectations of a city is to give them a glimpse into its day-to-day workings. We therefore aimed to bring the richness of Montréal to life. This richness, we hypothesized, resided not in tourist attractions, but in the city s inhabitants. It would thus be most fruitful to hand the microphone over to Montréalers themselves, giving them a chance to showcase their passion for the city and invite tourists to spend a weekend living like a local. To initiate and foster this conversation, we chose five themes: a girl s getaway, nightlife, gay life, gastronomy and arts and culture. For each theme, we chose an ambassador who would blog constantly to attract travellers year round. Create Content that Travels: We asked each blogger to create profiles on diverse social media platforms. This would create a more intimate connection between travellers and the city, as the insiders shared content with consumers and fielded their questions. Face Challenges: Making the move toward a 100% web-based tourism platform was not an easy switch. Not only did we have no benchmark, it was worrying that the content of the Tourism Montréal website was now in the hands of bloggers, with no assurance of success. We had to ensure that the conversation remained true, personal and authentic, with each blogger embracing the values of web 2.0: transparency, honesty, innovation, receptivity and credibility. We progressed little by little, making trials, errors and adjustments. Crossover Note 28.

5 5 Section IV KEY EXECUTIONAL ELEMENTS a) Media Used This was a 100% web-based campaign with a number of different elements: - Banners (rich media and classic) - Bloggers (content creators on Tourism Montréal s blog, on social media, and on other travel and lifestyles blogs and websites) - Search (SEM and SEO) - Outreach - Street Stunts (Toronto and New York) b) Creative Discussion Content Creation and Sharing: We introduced Get the local buzz from Montréal insiders on the Tourism Montréal website and, as noted, it was fuelled by the five bloggers. They infiltrated social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create a more intimate connection with consumers. We also created links with famous blogs, magazines or influential social media. In fact, we attracted the attention of famous bloggers like Gary Vaynerchuck. In autumn 2009, we got the famous Twitter-er to come to Montréal and showcase the city to his numerous fans and followers. Driving Traffic and Getting Talked About: To drive traffic, we had a media campaign with content banners that showcased videos of the insiders as well as call-to-action banners that promoted impressive deals. PR-wise, the media took to the campaign before it even started. Many articles were written in February 2009 as debate about the campaign raged in the blogosphere. In April, videos featuring our chosen insiders became talking-points online. From May to October, articles about the campaign multiplied as the bloggers gained credibility and built lasting relationships in the blogosphere. Moreover, we managed to get the attention of magazines like Serious Eats and Cool Hunting. To get the conversation started offline, we set up street stunts in New York (Postcard Stunt) and Toronto (Bagel Stunt). This helped generate interest in Montréal by creating buzz on the ground.

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7 7 c) Media Discussion We abandoned standard digital strategies and invented a dialogue with American and Canadian consumers. This spanned owned media (Tourism Montréal website and blogs) and earned media (social media platforms on the bloggers pages). Bought content was strongly oriented toward the acquisition of travellers. Web banners and search engine marketing attracted qualified leads, converted potential travellers and generated sales for Montréal hotels. We also inserted our message at key moments of the online purchasing process. And with the help of behavioural targeting, we placed content banners (showing videos of our insiders) on relevant websites by theme. To complete these buys, we also had an acquisition strategy to generate visits to the Tourism Montréal website and conversions to hotel sites. SEM and call-to-action banners featuring Sweet Deals were purchased on search engines and travel sites. All of this assured that we could reach travellers at the end of their decision process and speak to the indecisive amongst them to increase the likelihood of purchase.

8 8 Section V BUSINESS RESULTS Despite a difficult 2009 (recession, no Grand Prix in Montréal, bad weather throughout the summer), and an advertising budget that was 26% below the previous year s, Tourism Montréal managed to successfully increase all indicators of performance. Awareness of Montréal This increased as traffic to the site rose by 19.5% compared with Moreover, the traffic was enriched. The average number of pages viewed grew to 6, representing an 11% increase over Content Generated The campaign generated more than 360 articles, 435 photos and 145 videos, published via the blogs. Over 700 comments have been published and we have generated a social media network of over 4,000 Facebook and 7,000 Twitter followers. On top of that, a lot of content was generated by famous bloggers and magazines through our outreach activities. Conversion Rate We increased conversions to the Sweet Deals on the website by 17% over Bookings Room bookings through the Tourism Montréal website increased by 14% compared to This increase occurred while the overall room occupancies in the city (i.e. those not influenced by our efforts) decreased by 5.7% (Source: AHGM, Bulletin Statistique de l industrie Touristique Montréalaise). Looking at this chart, we see clear improvements in bookings from May to August 2009 vs. the same period in Notoriety of the city as a destination also increased over the year. Legend (from left to right): Bookings 2009, bookings 2008, Notoriety 2009, retail Finally the best proof of success has surely been that Tourism Montréal has decided to pursue the experience in 2010 by pushing the editorial structure even further.

9 9 Section VI CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS a) General Discussion The correlation between effort and results can be seen in the growth of visitors directed from search engines. At the beginning of the campaign, we wrestled with the fact of having inexperienced bloggers create content. After being trained to write optimized content, create links and use social media to its greatest extent, the number of visitors directed from search engines increased from 170 per week to 1,900. This is more than half the traffic generated by the blogs. Source: Google Analytics b) Excluding Other Factors Competitors New cities like Mexico City, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai have become popular destination spots. And on top of that, American cities aggressively promoted to keep their inhabitants at home. Spending levels As mentioned, the budget for the 2009 campaign was down 26%. Exchange Rate This remained strong, which decreased the likelihood of Americans travelling to Canada. Weather In the summer 2009, the weather was very bad in Montréal. Naturally, this didn t help attract tourists seeking a nice, sunny destination. Finally A crucial problem for Montréal was the absence of the Grand Prix, a key event for attracting tourists at the beginning of the summer season. END