Flanders is a festival

11/07/2012 #somet12

Tomas Vanderplaetse @suntapes @visitflanders

Flanders?

Flanders: Art cities

Bruges, Brussels, Gent, Antwerp, Leuven, Mechelen

Flanders: Belgian Beer

Flanders: Belgian Chocolate

Flanders: Cyclism & Flandriens

Flanders: Fashion

Flanders Fields & Ypres

Endorsed branding

#fiaf12

Goal #fiaf12:

Increase awareness of Flanders as a festival destination

Bring online influencers to Flanders to experience the

festival scene & stimulate conversation about Flanders

Target markets

UK

Denmark and Sweden

France

Spain Italy

The Netherlands

Austria

Germany

China

USA

Japan

India

Russia

1:

Biggest blogtrip in the world

Biggest blogtrip in the world

100 Bloggers from 13 countries

Key influencers in music, travel, lifestyle, social

media

Personal program for every blogger: a unique

festival experience + touristic tips

Selection ‘key influencers’ based on:

Online reach and audience

Used networks (Twitter, Instagram, Blog,

Facebook, mix, …)

Match #fiaf12

Personality & passion

Location and language

Biggest blogtrip in the world

Biggest blogtrip in the world: effort

Connection with bloggers as festival buddies

Authentic stories about festivals & destination

Happy bloggers & inspiration for their followers

‘Ambassadors’ for Flanders

Biggest blogtrip in the world: return

http://www.brain-magazine.com/article/reportages/10817-Blog-Trip-en-Flandre

Number of written blogposts: 257 (so far)

Number of unique visitors: > 7.500.000

Total reach of blogposts: > 11.500.000

Number of Facebook fans of all bloggers: > 300.000

Number of Twitter fans of all bloggers: > 550.000

Some numbers

257 blogposts

173 travel blogposts: reach of > 7.500.000

75 music blogposts: reach of > 3.500.000

9 lifestyle blogposts: reach of > 450.000

Total #fiaf12 : 7900 mentions

Every day 150.000 tweeps received a tweet

with #fiaf12 in their twitter feed. That is a

potential reach of 18.500.000 in total.

2:

Flanders Festival Express Competition

Flanders festival express

Flanders festival express

Flanders festival express competition

279 people entered the

competition

9.666 new FB fans

13.394 stories posted by

11.904 different people

Potential reach of 4.8 million

Flanders is a Festival

@fiafexpress

Flanders festival express

Flanders festival express

Engagement on the page is

2.96%: 3 times the average

interaction on facebook.

Ambassadors for Flanders

Earned media in Spain,

Netherlands, Austria, Germany,

Italy

Lessons learned

1. Start earlier!

2. Relation with bloggers

• Start inviting them in time to catch some big fish

• Clearly talk about expectations:

• What can they expect in the destination

• What return is expected: articles, mentions, backlinks,

conversation, analytics

• Keep in touch with them & inform them on future projects

3: Roles for foreign offices

• Reach, connect and engage

local bloggers

• Activate local media!!

4. Communicate the content

calendar to all partners & stick to it

5. Follow up and stimulate conversation

6. Involve (local) partners more

-> stimulate them to get involved in conversation

@visitgent @visitantwerp @visitbrussels @visitleuven @visitbruges @visitmechelen

@rockwerchter @pukkelpop @trackgent ….

7. Involve Flemish bloggers / geeks / ambassadors

/expats who are passionate about the destination

or specific product

8. Make stories visible for everyone (not only

people who follow blogs and use twitter)

Bring everything together on website

9. Use more live blogging

10. Change the organisation!

Thank you!

Tomas Vanderplaetse @suntapes

Visitflanders @visitflanders