Marketing Objectives:
Clearly state your marketing goals.
What did your company strive to achieve using this piece or program?
1. Increase visitation notably from a more affluent base
Aruba had traditionally enjoyed great repeat visitation but from a visitor base who was growing older, traditionally blue collar base and influenced by a timeshare dynamic. All of which did not lend itself to higher spending on island.
2.Highlight local activities affluent travelers desired - to increase island spend
If we could identify the activities a more affluent base desired and differentiate them from elsewhere in the Caribbean then these could provide an attractive draw to a place already known for some of the best weather and beaches.
3.Ensure these attractions benefited and championed the local community
It was clear that to get people out of the hotels and resorts and explore the island not only would differentiate but also promote on-island spending with locals.
4.Carve out differentiation for Aruba in the Caribbean
Our research and affluent base demanded it!
Target Audience:
Who was/is the target audience?
Characterize the composition, size, and location of your target audience.
A mobile-first video content series aimed at prompting engagement and action.
In particular, geared toward:
1. Middle-burb families:
They love the relaxing get-away, and are fond of the all-inclusives, where the kids taken care of. But now they’re looking for ‘why Aruba’ and looking for an experience beyond the resort…so long as its safe for the kids.
2. Affluent Empty Nesters:
An expanded key active group to 65 years of age. They love a blend of activity and culture, so long as there’s a nice glass of wine and restaurant at the end of the day.
3. Affluent Millennials:
They uncompromisingly want authentic culture, activities & events that are share-worthy and tailored for them.
Of Aruba’s U.S. visitation, 60+% comes from the eastern seaboard with New York, Boston and Philadelphia at the top 3. Chicago and Houston round out Aruba’s top 5 markets.
Category
NEW: Facebook Mobile Video Award
Entry Title
Authentic Aruba : Local Stories : Mobile
Situational Analysis
The tiny island of Aruba is the most tourism-dependent island in Caribbean, with nearly 90% of its economy tourism based. The pressure on tourism revenues is at an all-time high for both the livelihood of Aruba’s 100,000 people and the government tax revenue.
With significant visitation increases since 2012, our focus turned to value rather than volume. In particular, a move towards a more Affluent visitor with a higher disposable income in order to raise island tourism spend.
We wanted to achieve this in a way that contributed to the local community’s economic, social and environmental wellbeing. Not growth for growth’s sake, but sustainable growth with value and purpose for the community.
The attraction of a more affluent market is commonly driven by product - new or enhanced hotels, resorts or attractions. But with no new significant developments on the horizon, we found our affluent hook in the warmth and openness of the Aruban people, who love to share their One happy island.
Research, planning, and implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign?
Describe how you planned and produced the creative assets with the mobile canvas in mind.
1. Travel Trend Tracking.
Through international travel trends we understood Authenticity was the new premium and also, in an age of technology overload, real human connection was paramount.
2. Quantitative Research.
We engaged IPSOS to conduct a quantitative tracker, which revealed that, whilst Aruba had the highest appeal amongst competitors, it suffered from a low ‘value for money’ and ‘variety of things to do’. We also understood the needs of an affluent traveller to be 'a variety of leisure activities' combined with 'experiencing local culture in an unique outdoor setting'. This we determined equaled a unique experience worth paying for.
3. Qualitative Research.
We conducted focus group research across New York, Boston and Chicago and presented the campaign concepts. It was seen that ‘the true Aruba’ was relatively unknown but after the campaign was shown Aruba was seen as “motivating, authentic and differentiating” and ‘fresh and unexpected'.
Message:
What is the key messages intended for the piece/ campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?
What helped you breakthrough on mobile?
MESSAGE & DIFFERENTIATION
Aruba is a natural playground to connect with each other and locals to explore, laugh and learn together.
Tapping into the insights derived from our research stages, we differentiated through the diversity of Aruba’s People and Place using social storytelling across 4 distinct levels to drive incremental differentiation and real emotional engagement and conversion.
1st tier: Short form videos set the scene, informed the viewer what the local loved to do on island, clicking thru to long form video and specific niche landing pages.
2nd tier: the My Aruba series added a social and practical functionality dimension, pinpointing exact locations of where the stories in the 1st tier were set and how to get to them.
3rd tier: Practical yet engaging local video Papiamento language lessons driving understanding of local culture and bringing visitor and local closer.
4th tier: Highly entertaining “Happy People Sad Tweets” adding an extra layer of local color, humor and flair.
Results:
What original goals did you achieve and how?
How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign?
Entrants should provide quantifiable metrics tied to real business results (eg brand lift, leads, or bookings generated).
Social media impressions over 6 m, over 1m video views and engagements, achieving almost double Facebook travel benchmark engagement
Local specific landing pages have higher average time on page on Aruba.com +2minutes, 30 seconds.
The My Aruba series was prominently displayed on Aruba’s social channels and was consistently high in engagement.
Other tangible results of which our social media initiatives played big part.
• USA Visitation up 9.7% TYD March 2018
• Average Hotel Occupancy 90% - the highest in the Caribbean
• ADR up 11% RevPar up 16%
• On island spend 2017 up 4%