Marketing Safari

Destination Marketing: How Would You Spend 3 Million Dollars on Publicity?

 Iceland has got enormous publicity in the last weeks, and pretty much all of it negative. Beside the financial difficulties and disputes with the UK and the Netherlands, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption caught the eye of the world by grounding all air traffic in Europe - outside of Iceland (yes, believe it or not, while Europe was shut down all airports where open in Iceland).

The president gave some interviews warning authorities and airlines abroad that this was not a unique event and a much larger volcano was expected to erupt any time. This is true, but this is not nearly as dangerous or as much of a catastrophe as the media tend to put it. Even though the mountain is bigger it may have much less impact on air traffic, and it is definitely not the end of the world as some media has been indicating (named after a small dog-like animal).

 So the government of Iceland had a meeting this morning and decided to dedicate some 3 million dollars to restore Iceland's image and get back all the lost bookings - and more! People seem to fear coming to Iceland now, thinking they will be in immediate danger of exploding or risk being stranded in Iceland. The truth is, there's no risk except you are just by the volcano and since the mountain is located in Iceland, at least one of four international airports will always be open. The ash can only blow one direction at the time ;) You're therefore much more likely to be stranded in Europe than in Iceland in case of an eruption.

The government plans to spend the 3 million dollars on not only traditional advertising, but also online advertising - even social media. My thought is that we should not spend but maybe a tiny little fraction on advertising. We should rather spend it on events, initiatives and different kind of publicity. Something like a science project contest between 8. grade classes in the UK where one class gets an all-inclusive science expedition to Iceland. Or inviting 10 travel bloggers on a trip of a lifetime. So I'm asking you, if you had 3 million dollars to spend on publicity for a small country with a big bad name, what would YOU do?

Hjörtur

Iceland Volcano Eruption - The Effect on Tourism - What's Your Story?

Image from Reuters/Lucas Jackson 

Millions of passengers have been stranded unable to fly to or from airports in Europe. As this obviously has got huge implications and inconveniences for people and companies, and specially the flight industry, this also is an opportunity for alternative travel companies. 

Destination offices have been offering packages and I know that VisitReykjavik offered stranded tourists in Reykjavik a citycard with access to several museums and attractions to "kill the extra time" they had in the city. Some hotels have been filled with stranded tourists while others have not gotten cancellations. Many have been losing money but many have been creative in cooking up offers and incentives to minimize the losses or even make some extra bucks on the whole situation, something that seems to get mixed reactions from the public.

I would like to hear more stories about how people in the industry have reacted to the situation and what the feedback has been. Did you do something to make the best of the situation? Did it work well or did it backfire. What's your story?

Tell us in the comments below and answer our twitter poll: http://twtpoll.com/zp180a

Hjörtur

Free Media Coverage Using HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

Guest post by Derek Vaughan. 

In addition to registering a domain name, actually creating a website design, writing the content and maintaining your site - the greatest challenge facing website owners is how to promote the site. There are the obvious ways: try to get listed well in search engines, buy advertising, issue press releases. Then there are the less obvious ways. The ways that really work wonders. I came across one of those golden gems while conducting research for reseller hosting company 34SP.com. It's a great opportunity for exposure if you do it right. The service is called HARO or 'Help a Reporter Out'.

So exactly what is HARO and how does it work? HARO is the acronym for the website: http://www.helpareporter.com. If you are interested in gaining free publicity for yourself as an expert, or your website as an expert source, you've hit pay dirt. Help a Reporter is a service which puts together reporters who are looking for sources to add credibility to their new articles and subject matter experts who are willing to share their expertise with reporters and their readers. The home page of the HARO website brags, ''From The New York Times, to ABC News, to HuffingtonPost.com and everyone in between, nearly 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources in their stories.'' 

So how does one get started with HARO and have a chance to be published as an expert in major publications? It is very easy to get started. You simply go to the signup page here:http://helpareporter.com/sources and insert your email and choose a password. From that point forward you will receive ''HAROs'' via email. HAROs are brief summaries of the material needed by the reporter to create the article.

Here are some snippets of a few recent HARO requests:

''I need info on how to get discount promo fares that cut the cost of passenger jet flights. The more relevant your background the better. Pls just state credentials first...''

''I’m working on a story about the mother of the bride, and I’d love to hear from recent brides about your most memorable moments with Mom at your wedding or leading up to your wedding- these can be funny or sentimental. Please share what happened and include your name, age and city/state (ex.: Betty D., 32, Columbus, OH.)''

''Looking for experts in growing Hops, Malts, and Brewing Herbs who are willing to answer questions about their experience.''

There are many queries that come up in the course of a week ranging from the general to the very specific. To submit your availability you generally email back a summary of your credentials and what you think you can contribute. Additionally, the media outlets requesting the experts range from smaller, online-only publications to the national media. There is also a Twitter feed which has urgent requests posted as soon as they are identified at : http://twitter.com/helpareporter.

If you are interested in promoting yourself or your website brand, I suggest signing up for the HAROs and looking them over for a few days to get a feel of what's being requested. If you work at it and apply to those requests that fit your expertise you stand a good chance of getting some free media coverage. Who knows? You may even end up on USA Today or the Huffington Post.

Derek Vaughan is a web hosting industry veteran, marketing consultant and writer. Mr. Vaughan has architected the marketing growth of several prominent web hosting success stories leading to acquisition including Affinity Internet, Inc., Aplus.Net and HostMySite.com. Prior to his entry into the web hosting industry, Mr. Vaughan was responsible for online marketing at The Walt Disney Company where he marketed ecommerce for the ESPN.com and NASCAR.com brands. Mr. Vaughan received his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University and currently serves on the HostingCon Advisory Board.