EACH month, we go globetrotting around the world in search of the most surprising, stimulating and thought-provoking travel and tourism advertising. We’ll discover a diversity of campaigns using quirky cultures, inarguable insights, or off-beat humour – with all of them having one thing in common – highly effective cut-through creative ideas.
Following the herd works for the Faroe Islands Tourism Board.
Creative people are generally a positive and optimistic bunch, always looking for a fresh way to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem. That’s what’s so invigorating about creating ideas, the way they constantly show us that anything is possible with a solid injection of hard work and guts.
And talking of seemingly unsolvable problems, the Faroe Islands Tourism Board had a doozy. They weren’t just operating to a limited marketing investment, or having to work to a reduced budget. They had a total lack of media money. Zilch. Or ‘frítt’ as they say in Faroese. It’s a constraint that would certainly focus the mind.
But whilst the autonomous territory was lacking in cash, the place is abundant in sheep. And it would seem their wooly warriors were happy to do their bit to attract visitors for a budget-friendly bugger all too.
The creative leap that took this campaign from zero to hero was when the marketing team realised there was no Google Street View on the islands. To combat this, they created ‘Google Sheep View’ by strapping a number of cameras onto the backs of their national flock and let their random roaming capture the beauty of the islands. The filmed content was uploaded to Streetview through Google’s API, essentially creating a new media channel and authentic content for their (lack of) budget.
The idea was launched through PR and the world’s media drank it up.
The results weren’t woolly at all, with a reach of over 2,000,000,000, creating over 7,000 news stories, over 42,000 web mentions. The PR ROI has been estimated to be 150,000%! Metrics aside, the proof in the pudding is that it led to a near sell out of accommodation bookings across the Faroe Islands.
Check out the case study video HERE.
What I love most about this idea is that it solves the content and media riddle so effortlessly. We all know how hard it is to get fresh and original content at a manageable price, but in this example the idea itself drove that really efficiently.
The campaign captured the imagination of the locals who went on to contribute their own follow-up content around the islands filmed using ‘Ship View’, ‘Skateboard View’ and my personal favourite ‘Wheelbarrow View’! It’s proof that everyone will engage when you create and promote great thinking.
Even Google, who ‘Liked’ the project, joined in the fun and actually sent their Street View team to the islands to give them the real thing with their tech.
Perhaps locally we can take a more unexpected approach to travel and tourism content too?
Maybe Virgin Australia domestic crews are given GoPro cameras to capture the fun of their layovers for a city break campaign. Or Greyhound coaches could livestream ‘slow TV’ as they cross the Nullarbor? Or the WA tourism folks could do their version of the sheep idea? ‘Camel cam’ – where viewers can check out the beauty of the outback to drive bookings. It could make something feral, financial.
So, when you’re putting together your next creative brief, consider that even a low budget can be the catalyst for a high-impact idea.
Christian Finucane (pictured) is a Founder & Creative Partner of Sydney independent, The Core Agency. The team has created effective advertising, digital and social campaigns for Destination NSW, Cook Islands, Sydney Airport and Quest Apartment Hotels.
