Kristina Sjöström began by clearing something up. Visit Sweden is not part of VISIT. It is Sweden’s national tourism organization, a state-owned company with one job: to market Sweden as a place to visit. She had been asked about the names several times that morning.
Then she turned to the people in the room. She quoted Brand Finance, which Visit Sweden works with: tourism is a country’s first handshake with the world. Being a great place to visit shapes how a country is seen, and that reputation helps trade and talent attraction too. Visit Sweden brings in the attention. The hotels, attractions and destinations in the room take care of guests once they arrive.
No Eiffel Tower, small budget
Sweden is not an easy sell. There is no Eiffel Tower. The fjords belong to Norway. And Visit Sweden has a limited budget, so it cannot buy attention through ads and takeovers. It has to earn it. The campaigns are built for PR, for journalists to write about and for social media to share. “It’s always better that someone else is telling the advantages about you,” she said.
The chain is simple. Attention becomes attraction. Attraction becomes visitors.
Most destination marketing looks the same
Kristina has spent a lot of time at travel fairs. Her verdict: most destination marketing is dull, because it all looks alike. She pointed to a study where an audience watched a film of cows grazing in a field, then a set of commercials. The cows stirred more emotion.
Her advice applies to a national tourism board, a destination, a hotel or an activity provider alike. Do not use the same words and pictures as everyone else.
How a campaign is built
Visit Sweden looks for a sweet spot where three things meet: what is happening on social media, what travelers are looking for, and what Sweden can offer.
Every idea is then held to a few rules. It has to be true and backed by research. It needs a modern tone with a dry Scandinavian sense of humor. It has to give journalists a news angle they can sell. And it has to make people want to travel to Sweden as a whole, not to one place or one season. A campaign also has to outlive its launch, as the theme for press trips and trade visits through the following year.
Two campaigns
The first was The Swedish Prescription. Doctors increasingly prescribe activity and culture for mental health, and wellness travel is booming. Sweden has calm and nature. So Visit Sweden made it the first country in the world to be prescribed by doctors, with doctors in the UK, France, the US and Germany and with Karolinska Institutet. The film was even shown at Europe’s largest medical fair. The campaign earned 1,800 articles in 70 countries. “We would never be able to afford that reach buying media,” she said.
The second began with island hopping on social media, and the luxury dream of a private island. Sweden has more islands than any other country, 257,000 of them. So Visit Sweden gave five away. The winners became custodians for a year, under the right of public access. Applications came from more than 100 countries. Four of the five winners traveled to Sweden over the summer, some hiring local fishermen to reach islands that were tiny and remote. One father brought his three children from Wisconsin and documented the whole trip. So far the campaign has earned more than 3,000 publications in over 80 countries.
The tone was playful. The coverage was about the archipelago, Swedish culture and sustainability. That was the point.
Do not blend in
Kristina closed with a line from Seth Godin: “Blending in is the same as being invisible.”
It is an easy test to run. Put your latest campaign next to a competitor’s. If you could swap the logos, look for a sharper angle.