Marketing collaborations can help boost campaigns by extending its reach and influence across people of different demographics. This can be applicable especially to tourism campaigns which demand a global audience. Asian tourism has steadily risen as they seek to create global, fresh, and engaging experiences that unwittingly let real people gravitate towards them naturally.
Asia is a world brimming with culture and possibilities. Well-versed travelers know and understand the appeal, yet not everyone can relate to it on a deeper level, to the point that they’d pack up their bags, hop on a flight, and take a trip to the East.
It seems that Asian countries have realized this and have begun to create more and more universal campaigns. One way of doing this is by partnering with key people and parties that can encourage more tourists all over the world.
“Passion Made Possible”
“Passion Made Possible” is Singapore’s latest campaign effort to create a unified brand to solidify their presence internationally as both a tourism and business hub. The idea behind the campaign is that Singapore can be a place where anything is possible as long as you have passion. This was unveiled in various cities and countries worldwide, with respective partnerships depending on their target demographic.
What are your passions and are they achievable here in Singapore?
Well, they are – and not just for… https://t.co/XURlAg9jas
— SRN (@SRNFASS) October 7, 2017
For example, one of the target demographics of Singapore are the Filipino travelers. To capture the Philippine market, Singapore partnered and identified three “passion ambassadors” for the Philippines:
- Mikael Daez, a travel vlogger and actor;
- Nicco Santos, founder of several local up and coming start-up restaurants namely, Your Local, Hey Handsome, and Any Any; and lastly,
- Andre Chanco, the owner of Yardstick, a coffee shop business inspired by the time he had spent in Singapore.
By partnering with these prominent people in the country, they are able to speak through them to capture the Filipino audience.
Alipay and Singapore Tourism Board Make a Good Tandem
Another example is their partnership with Alipay, a China owned mobile payment platform popular among tourists, having a goal of being able to share on the platform some relevant travel information about Singapore. Apart from this, they have also agreed to share data and analytics regarding the trends of Chinese travelers.
This way, Singapore may have a deeper insight and understanding of the Chinese people. And by using this platform as a way to get information and broadcast their tourism campaign, they are able to speak directly to their target demographic.
“I Seoul U”
Seoul Metropolitan Government has partnered with internationally famous Kpop boy group, BTS, to promote Seoul through a video advertisement, “I SEOUL U,” which will showcase famous travel destinations in the city.
They have named the band as their official travel ambassador, following their worldwide acclaim, with their recent win in the Billboard Music Awards. By partnering with influential people like celebrities, they are able to speak to their fans and encourage them to travel and visit the city, especially with the recent rise of the Hallyu (Korean culture) wave, with Kpop and Kdrama in the forefront.
Apart from celebrity collaborations, this campaign also tied up with other city and provincial bodies to display their advertisements, foreign travel agencies for trade fairs and booths, and even tourism colleges. With this, they are able to fully maximize all their resources to create a campaign that will go full circle.
What does it mean for the advertisers?
Tourism campaigns have truly gone beyond simply understanding their country’s value proposition, as what’s more imperative in today’s day and age is how a campaign may veer towards a more universal appeal.
One approach is through collaboration. By creating campaigns in partnership with specific entities, they can opt to tailor fit their campaigns by localizing it to each country they are targeting (such as Singapore’s “Passion Made Possible” and their several local partnerships per country). Or, better yet, choose to center the entire campaign on a concept that can span across all cultures, and speak to anyone (such as Korea’s “I Seoul U” and their partnership with international Kpop sensation, BTS, whose fans are from all over the world).
By maximizing these collaborations with the right intention and understanding, marketers will surely be able to create a bigger impact in shaping the way tourists perceive Asia. Sooner or later, Asia may finally become the leading universal travel destination, across cultures, and nations.
