Visit Wales #blogwales 5 bloggers… visit 5 key destinations

Jeremy Head – WTM, November 2013

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Some stuff about iCrossing

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Some stuff about Visit Wales

• Influencing £150 million of additional spend each year

• Big focus is improving reputation

• Those people who have not yet considered Wales

• New website launched this summer – social really baked in; very flexible publishing platform

• Vibrant social media presence – 400k Facebook fans; 33k twitter followers; on Instagram, Pinterest and Storify

• Looking to make budget go even further

• Digital seen as increasingly important going forward – keen to try new things

#blogwales – joining search, social and content together

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What are we trying to do then?

Objective: to raise awareness of the cultural and natural highlights of five key cities/towns in

Wales among target demographics – older couples, families and independent travellers

Secondary goals: to create useful content for Visitwales.com, to promote Wales to influential bloggers, to generate links to Visitwales.com, to

create buzz in social media channels

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Here’s what we did Right bloggers, right destinations, right timing

• iCrossing worked with Visit Wales’ external PR agency Four BGB to select 5 UK-based bloggers from a range of networks we wished to target – in particular family, silver surfer and budget/independent travel blogs - using SEO, social and influence metrics.

Family Adventure Project [Family] Twitter: 9k Facebook: 2.5k PA: 49 DA: 44

Budget Traveller [Budget travel] Twitter: 13k Facebook: 1.5k PA: 53 DA: 45

Mammasaurus [Family] Twitter: 9k Facebook: 2k PA: 57 DA: 49

Inside The Travel Lab [Silver Surfer] Twitter: 12.5k Facebook: 3k PA: 58 DA: 50

Baldhiker [Silver Surfer] Twitter: 450k Facebook: 3.5k PA: 54 DA: 44

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Timings Right bloggers, right destinations, right timing

• We sent one blogger to each of our 5 destinations for a weekend of exploration. (Cardiff, Swansea, St Davids, Brecon, Llandudno)

• Bloggers asked to:

Get involved with the VWales Facebook community - solicit ideas pre-trip Write a pre-trip post for their blog linking to the VWales site and Facebook discussions Add images to a new Visit Wales #blogwales Pinterest board Create on-the-move content whilst there which hosted on a new Storify page. Write a post-trip post for their blog linking to the VWales site Write a top five to add to the relevant city page on the VWales site Promote using their social channels - using the hashtag #blogwales Chat with the VWales Facebook community – post-trip

• Timings Run the trips one week after another to maximise the exposure potential.

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This is what we got Great content, multiple platforms, nice links, great engagement

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Some hopefully… ‘live’ examples

• http://familyadventureproject.org/2013/06/north-wales-visit-llandudno/

• https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151568084891785&set=a.437077346784.194341.50488206784&type=1

• http://familyadventureproject.org/2013/07/what-to-do-in-llandudno/

• https://www.facebook.com/visitwales/posts/10151575060391785

• http://storify.com/visitwales/blogwales-blogger-trips-llandudno-brecon-cardiff

• http://www.pinterest.com/visitwales/blogwales/

• http://blog.homeaway.co.uk/summer-in-the-uk-why-do-the-alps-when-you-could-do-snowdonia/

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So what? Establishing a benchmark

Objective

Measures

Acquisition of new visitors

Activating and amplifying content

Awareness and Engagement

151 web referrals 10 conversions

7,737 social referrals 751 conversions

10 high-quality links 262 social mentions

69 retweets

2,686,552 impressions 3,182 Storify views

£1.97 CPM ROI x14.3 Link value worth ~ £1000

Data sources: Brandwatch, Google Analytics, Majestic SEO

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What did we learn then?

• Work across partners for impact – PR agency, digital agency, internal PR

• Have some high level objectives – but mix it up a bit too

• Using the right bloggers offers a cost effective way to connect with target audiences

• Be prescriptive. Make clear with bloggers what you need from the deal

• Think about all the ways a blogger can bring stuff to the party. Consider all platforms, all formats

• It’s about conversation (not broadcast). Using the Visit Wales Facebook community to start the process off ensured it was social from the word go

• Measure your results and use them as a benchmark

Thank you

www.jeremyhead.com – www.visitwales.com – www.icrossing.co.uk