 "A brand ambassador playing the role of a personal guide was unheard of: Hanneli Slabber")
What has been the most interesting sales promotion you have engineered so far?
Last year's 'Take me to South Africa with Jonty Rhodes' was among our most interesting initiative. This was a never-done-before consumer outreach initiative where the brand ambassador played the role of a personal guide for select Indian travellers. Four Indian travellers got a chance to visit South Africa with cricketer Jonty Rhodes as their personal host and guide on a two-week sojourn in the country.
Who did you target with the campaign?
While we were targeting both existing and new customers, which is reflected in 40 per cent increase in repeat customers, we realised we were doing little to reach out to the youth as a segment. Hence we decided to launch this contest.
What kind of promotion was it?
It was a marketing promotion. We wanted to promote not just our brand destination but also increase the number of people visiting the destination. We wanted to show the successful journey of the four individuals with a celebrity brand ambassador as the host. The contest was announced through advertisements in the print media and television. We also leveraged the internet. While we used social media platforms to target the youth, we also designed a website to invite participation. It allowed entrants to answer 10 simple questions on South Africa. The contest was launched on March 20, 2013, and lasted until the end of the month. The response was overwhelming with 6,764 contest entries on the official website, 130.3 million 'impressions' across the web, 3,500 mentions of #TakeMeToSouthAfrica on Twitter and 60,000 website visits. Finally a well-organised audition in Mumbai and Delhi helped us get our four talented contestants.
Why was the campaign designed so?
For a young traveller, South Africa as a destination offers magnificent wildlife, iconic beaches and adrenaline-pumping adventure activities. We topped the experience with a world famous cricketer acting as the guide. The objective of this contest was to attract participation and interest of the growing youth traveller segment in India.
What were the challenges in designing the campaign?
Globally, this was a first-of-its-kind initiative and given that we gathered more than 6,000 entries in 10 days from across the country, shortlisting it to the best four was challenging for us.
Who partnered you in it?
We partnered with television channel NDTV Good Times for the campaign and collaborated with Lonely Planet as our print partner. The idea was to get Jonty to capture the entire journey in a guide book written by him, My Travel Escapades In South Africa, which offers a 44-page narration of Jonty's extraordinary travel experiences across the magnificent country with the contest winners. The travel guide was distributed with the August edition of Lonely Planet thereby reaching out to the large circulation database of the magazine.
How effective was the exercise?
The campaign was a big success and we will come with the second season. Around 8,508 Indians visited South Africa in March 2013 (the campaign month), a 19.2 per cent increase. As per our latest reports, 84,202 Indian tourists have visited South Africa between January 2013 and September 2013, a tremendous increase of 6.2 per cent from the same period in 2012. The inquiries to our office and to the Indian travel agents have been on a growth trajectory ever since the campaign.
Don't sales promotions incur high long-term costs for a brand/company?
We are happy to invest in sales promotions because in the long term it helps us in building brand awareness. Our research shows that many of the respondents gained awareness about the country through the promotions undertaken in print, television, cinema and outdoor media. The best way to showcase these to the target audience across markets is to invest in innovative and wide-ranging promotions.
"Take me to South Africa with Jonty Rhodes"
Aim
To promote SOuth Africa not just as a brand destination but also increase the number of people visiting the country
Target
The objective of this contest was to attract participation and interest of the growing youth traveller segment
in India
Plan
The contest was launched on March 20, 2013, and lasted until the end of the month. Entrants had to answer 10 simple questions on South Africa. The short-listed candidates were sent to auditions in Mumbai and Delhi. Four contestants got a chance to visit South Africa with cricketer Jonty Rhodes as their personal host and guide
Outcome
There has been consistent increase in the arrival figures and roughly 40 per cent of repeat travellers to South Africa. Around 84,202 Indian tourists visited South Africa between January and September 2013, an increase of 6.2 per cent from the same period in 2012
Last year's 'Take me to South Africa with Jonty Rhodes' was among our most interesting initiative. This was a never-done-before consumer outreach initiative where the brand ambassador played the role of a personal guide for select Indian travellers. Four Indian travellers got a chance to visit South Africa with cricketer Jonty Rhodes as their personal host and guide on a two-week sojourn in the country.
Who did you target with the campaign?
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What kind of promotion was it?
It was a marketing promotion. We wanted to promote not just our brand destination but also increase the number of people visiting the destination. We wanted to show the successful journey of the four individuals with a celebrity brand ambassador as the host. The contest was announced through advertisements in the print media and television. We also leveraged the internet. While we used social media platforms to target the youth, we also designed a website to invite participation. It allowed entrants to answer 10 simple questions on South Africa. The contest was launched on March 20, 2013, and lasted until the end of the month. The response was overwhelming with 6,764 contest entries on the official website, 130.3 million 'impressions' across the web, 3,500 mentions of #TakeMeToSouthAfrica on Twitter and 60,000 website visits. Finally a well-organised audition in Mumbai and Delhi helped us get our four talented contestants.
Why was the campaign designed so?
For a young traveller, South Africa as a destination offers magnificent wildlife, iconic beaches and adrenaline-pumping adventure activities. We topped the experience with a world famous cricketer acting as the guide. The objective of this contest was to attract participation and interest of the growing youth traveller segment in India.
What were the challenges in designing the campaign?
Globally, this was a first-of-its-kind initiative and given that we gathered more than 6,000 entries in 10 days from across the country, shortlisting it to the best four was challenging for us.
Who partnered you in it?
We partnered with television channel NDTV Good Times for the campaign and collaborated with Lonely Planet as our print partner. The idea was to get Jonty to capture the entire journey in a guide book written by him, My Travel Escapades In South Africa, which offers a 44-page narration of Jonty's extraordinary travel experiences across the magnificent country with the contest winners. The travel guide was distributed with the August edition of Lonely Planet thereby reaching out to the large circulation database of the magazine.
How effective was the exercise?
The campaign was a big success and we will come with the second season. Around 8,508 Indians visited South Africa in March 2013 (the campaign month), a 19.2 per cent increase. As per our latest reports, 84,202 Indian tourists have visited South Africa between January 2013 and September 2013, a tremendous increase of 6.2 per cent from the same period in 2012. The inquiries to our office and to the Indian travel agents have been on a growth trajectory ever since the campaign.
Don't sales promotions incur high long-term costs for a brand/company?
We are happy to invest in sales promotions because in the long term it helps us in building brand awareness. Our research shows that many of the respondents gained awareness about the country through the promotions undertaken in print, television, cinema and outdoor media. The best way to showcase these to the target audience across markets is to invest in innovative and wide-ranging promotions.
"Take me to South Africa with Jonty Rhodes"
Aim
To promote SOuth Africa not just as a brand destination but also increase the number of people visiting the country
Target
The objective of this contest was to attract participation and interest of the growing youth traveller segment
in India
Plan
The contest was launched on March 20, 2013, and lasted until the end of the month. Entrants had to answer 10 simple questions on South Africa. The short-listed candidates were sent to auditions in Mumbai and Delhi. Four contestants got a chance to visit South Africa with cricketer Jonty Rhodes as their personal host and guide
Outcome
There has been consistent increase in the arrival figures and roughly 40 per cent of repeat travellers to South Africa. Around 84,202 Indian tourists visited South Africa between January and September 2013, an increase of 6.2 per cent from the same period in 2012