And so ends 2021, a year in which we emerged into a brave new post-pandemic world, COP26 offered hope of a more sustainable future and the agency utilised a wide variety of tactics - including traditional PR, content marketing, digital marketing, paid social media and event organisation - to generate some excellent results for our clients.
As we continue to add ecommerce, sustainable technology and finance brands into the mix alongside our existing travel and lifestyle portfolio, here are five 2021 campaigns that we’re most proud of...
1. PR - record bookings for Camplify during UK’s ‘staycation summer’
Earlier in the year we were tasked with generating bookings and increasing owner sign ups for the campervan and motorhome sharing platform Camplify throughout the UK’s ‘summer of staycations’ post-lockdown. Core tactics included profiling the success of current owners, organising press trips for high profile journalists and ensuring all content created had a unique and timely hook.
We generated a total of 61 pieces of coverage in a seven-month period across a host of national newspapers, money and travel magazines. This coverage had a total reach of 32,677,901 and a value of £1,200,831 - this represents an ROI of £114 for every £1 spent by the client. Camplify achieved record bookings in May, and then again in June.
Read the full case study
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2. Digital marketing campaigns with Poland and the Czech Republic
Throughout the year we ran a number of successful paid social media and digital marketing campaigns targeting specific audiences and geographical locations. A paid ‘Nature’s Choice’ campaign with the Polish Tourism Office saw us provide outdoor adventure travel inspiration and increase traffic to the Poland Travel website - the campaign generated a reach of 2,208,201 over the course of three weeks.
We also partnered with Silver Travel Advisor to promote the Czech Republic specifically to 50+ travellers. This involved securing landing page and skyscraper advertising, homepage carousel and editorial on silvertraveladvisor.com, in addition to two full-page adverts in Silver Travel Advisor magazine. This was supported by newsletter content (distributed to 89,000 followers), a monthly Facebook post (61,000 followers) and a members and media webinar with Budweiser Budvar to showcase Czech culinary experiences.
We also partnered with travel experts Rough Guides on a collaborative media buying, newsletter and social media campaign that would involve Sunday Times advertorial, three articles for the Rough Guides website (750,000 visitors monthly), social media support (500,000+ followers) and newsletter distribution (50,000 subscribers).
3. Content marketing - Slovenian cycling and Julian Alps regional promotion
We continued to put Slovenia on the map throughout 2021. This began with a content marketing campaign based around the Tour de France. We created a new cycling-focused webpage for the Slovenian website, as well as organising a webinar with cycling superstar Primoz Roglic (streamed live on the official Slovenian Facebook page to 578,000 followers). We also devised a ‘Roglic vs Pogacar’ promotional video that saw the cyclists go head-to-head and test their knowledge of their home country.
Read our Slovenian Cycling case study
At the same time, our LinkedIn-based Bohinj Green Movement campaign exceeded 1,000 followers (thanks to some help from Strictly Come Dancing superstars) and we also supported the launch of the Julian Alps’ 'Juliana Trail' and 'Juliana Bike' with features in publications including The Times, The Guardian and The Metro.
Read our Julian Alps case study
4. The return of face-to-face conferences and events
2021 finally allowed us to meet face-to-face and share our plans for the future of tourism. In September we attended ANTOR Meet The Media event on behalf of the Czech Republic, where we were able to meet with leading journalists to discuss key press trip opportunities for the year ahead.
In October came the return of the World Travel Market, and our Director Frank Marr organised and moderated a panel discussion titled ‘Revive and Thrive: Tourism PR in a Post-Pandemic World’. Frank was joined by a panel of industry professionals to discuss how the tourism industry planned to build back better following the pandemic.
Read Frank’s blog on what to expect from PR and marketing in the post-pandemic world.
5. Expanding our expertise in a variety of sectors
This year we continued to expand our expertise in a number of exciting sectors. 2021 saw our first foray into the financial sector as part of a project with Dinosaur Merchant Bank as they launched a new remittance service, DinoRemit, in the UK.
This year we also began an exciting new partnership with print-on-demand ecommerce leaders Printful, Latvia’s first ‘unicorn’ company (a private startup valued at over $1 billion). As the company expands into the UK for the first time, we’ve generated coverage in leading trade media, organised interviews for Printful spokespeople and prepared for a January launch event.
We’ve continued to work alongside Dundee City Council, helping them further establish themselves as the UK’s EV capital by creating an online press centre and a bank of easily-digestible infographic style assets. Highlights in 2021 included this Financial Times feature as well as articles in the Daily Express and The Guardian. We also created this article for Visit Scotland promoting Dundee’s EVI Forum.
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