The immersive If You Seek destination campaign led by Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) recently won ICCA’s Best Marketing Awards 2023 at the 62nd ICCA Congress in Bangkok last week.
If You Seek leverages emotive decision-making to charm quality visitors looking to explore on a limited budget.
“Our campaign compels the curious minded to seek out by teasing but never revealing all,” shared Leonie Ashford, TNZ’s business events manager. By emphasising unique and meaningful connections, the campaign attracted high-quality visitors, resulting in an increase in business events visitors and longer stays in communities.
TNZ was among four shortlisted organisations that built their destination campaign on meaningful objectives, under the theme, Marketing – Going Beyond the Obvious. They presented their campaigns to ICC Congress 2023 delegates earlier this week.
The other contenders were Destination Canada, Cote D’Azur, and Uppsala Convention Bureau.
Virginiie de Visscher from Destination Canada spearheaded the Canadian Business Events Sustainability Plan to propel the country as a sustainability leader in the GDS Index.
“We needed a comprehensive sustainability plan to unite 16 different destinations in the world’s second-largest country,” she shared.
To be implemented in three different phases – education & coaching, measuring & monitoring, and communication, the plan utilises GDS Index for benchmarking, and includes storytelling masterclasses for industry partners.
Meanwhile, Mariska Kesteloo, founder of Word of MICE and a former digital nomad who is now MICE ambassador for Cote D’Azur, implemented the MICE Ambassador Project 2023, an influencer marketing campaign focused on promoting Cote D’Azur in an unconventional manner. It allowed the destination to expand its social media presence.
The Meeting Hero Campaign, devised by Anna Lindstrom and Lisa Waestberg from Uppsala Convention Bureau in Sweden, encouraged local officials in the small town of 240,000 to host meetings. With creative initiatives, such as placing small but memorable souvenirs in key areas of municipality offices, it successfully reached 1,600 officials and generated six million euros (US$6.4 million) worth of municipality-hosted meetings.
“This campaign cost us 4,000 euros, and all materials used are sustainable, recyclable and reusable,” they shared.
The winner will be chosen by judges and ICCA Congress 2023 delegates on a 50:50 basis upon five weighted criteria, and announced at the closing session later today.
