During his talk, Daði, from Business Iceland, presented two of their campaigns to us to show us how they maintain their digital competitiveness.
Covid-19 brought travel to a halt, and with Iceland's economy depending heavily on tourism, they needed to minimise the negative effects of the pandemic by positioning Iceland as a desirable travel destination when global travel reopened.
Covid-19 brought travel to a halt, and with Iceland's economy depending heavily on tourism, they needed to minimise the negative effects of the pandemic by positioning Iceland as a desirable travel destination when global travel reopened.
During his talk, Daði Guðjónsson, from Business Iceland, presented two of their campaigns to us to show us how they maintain their digital competitiveness.
Covid-19 brought travel to a halt, and with Iceland's economy depending heavily on tourism, they needed to minimise the negative effects of the pandemic by positioning Iceland as a desirable travel destination when global travel reopened.
They invested in an 'earned first' media approach, to stand out from the competition in a unique way and grab attention in a highly competitive field in an unprecedented situation. As Daði explained, this was an approach that required thinking politically and acting creatively to seize the moment.
Their audience was a clear sub-set within their traditional target groups, 17.7 million first movers, who were more likely than average to travel overseas. They identified them and tapped into the social forces that define this audience's mindsets to develop a campaign as successful as possible.
They identified four cultural patterns that influence decision making:
Furthermore, the situation that resulted from the pandemic created a set of emotional barriers that they needed to overcome during the customer journey:
Daði also talked about a new social force that emerged during Covid-19: personal sustainability, which is an expansion of the notion of sustainability to one that is more inward. It is driven by our search for self-preservation, mentally and physically, while making room for joy and serendipity. So, how does Iceland fit into all of this? The country offers unique natural resources; joyful and welcoming people; an innovative, clean, sustainable and progressive culture; and a community and country that handled Covid-19 smoothly.
The strategy focused on three elements:
Daði explained that they developed a creative strategy for the different stages of the pandemic:
During the restricted travel stage, the world needed a release, people needed a big, open, beautiful place to let our all of the frustration. Through the ‘Let it Out’ campaign, Iceland let the world send their shouts of frustration to be released into the gorgeous expanses of its most remote locations, inspiring people to go seek out wellness for real by planning a visit.
During the restricted travel stage, the world needed a release, people needed a big, open, beautiful place to let our all of the frustration. Through the ‘Let it Out’ campaign, Iceland let the world send their shouts of frustration to be released into the gorgeous expanses of its most remote locations, inspiring people to go seek out wellness for real by planning a visit. The digital platform, as Daði explained, was easy and accessible. You could record your scream, watch it be played live from Iceland, and share a custom video of the moment of your scream travelling through Iceland.
The 'Icelandverse' campaign was born as a response to Facebook's new Metaverse, which is a vast virtual world to inhabit and explore. Business Iceland saw this as a great opportunity to talk about the reality that is Iceland and to showcase everything the country has to offer without the need of using VR googles.
They define the Icelandverse as enhanced actual reality, which encourages travellers to experience Iceland. The communication objectives of the campaign were to build presence and raise brand awareness, but also to position Iceland as a desirable destination of choice and to establish it as a first option for new travellers.
Daði wrapped up his session by elaborating on the lessons from this campaign, which are that earned-first thinking is crucial (doing things differently), we must be agile and culturally relevant, humour can be a great ally and the message should always reinforce the brand.
1. Seize the moment through thinking politically and acting creatively.
2. Be culturally relevant and reinforce the brand message.
3. Define target groups appropriately and appeal to their needs.
Daði Guðjónsson works as head of branding and market strategy at Business Iceland, where he manages the global consumer marketing initiative Inspired by Iceland.
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