In this keynote, Katrine Mosfjeld, from Visit Norway, guided us through how we can translate our sustainable strategy into digital.
Katrine started by explaining that their sustainable strategy was published in May 2021 and developed through the pandemic. During her presentation, she covered the goals of the 2030 national tourism strategy ("big impact, small footprint"), visit Norway's digital marketing strategy and how they support their 2030 goals with digital messages.
Katrine started by explaining that their sustainable strategy was published in May 2021 and developed through the pandemic. During her presentation, she covered the goals of the 2030 national tourism strategy ("big impact, small footprint"), visit Norway's digital marketing strategy and how they support their 2030 goals with digital messages.
Katrine started by explaining that their sustainable strategy was published in May 2021 and developed through the pandemic. During her presentation, she covered the goals of the 2030 national tourism strategy ("big impact, small footprint"), Visit Norway's digital marketing strategy and how they support their 2030 goals with digital messages.
Katrine highlighted that at Visit Norway they are concerned about greenwashing and believe that all stories should be grounded on sustainability. Nonetheless, she expressed the challenge that being an oil-based economy poses to become a sustainable destination.
The goals of their 2030 strategy are to increase tourism, including profitability and jobs, the ripple effects, guest satisfaction for priority target groups, attractive local communities and happy residents and have decreased by at least 50% their carbon footprint.
Karine explained that there are 23 different actions in the action plan of the strategy, and this is one of them. What this calculator does is calculate what consumption comes, per kilo of CO2, from each country. This allows them to identify what markets are worth working with and whether they spend enough on offsetting their climate impact.
As Katrine explained, this is another part of their action plan. It is divided into six different programmes, where they work with different tourism organisations to succeed in shifting the tourism industry.
The main task for the marketing team at Visit Norway is to decarbonise the travel industry by building new market opportunities with less climate cost.
Katrine stressed the importance of the Norwegian tourism industry to find a way to have visitors all year round, as this will improve the quality of the services provided due to not having seasonal jobs.
When looking at what the country should improve or be more of, the following was indicated: good value for money; interesting, rich cultural heritage or art; social, friendly; good local cuisine. On the other hand, Katrine also covered what performance should be sustained: beautiful nature; peaceful; for explorers.
Katrine explained that more than ever before, due to all the information and advertising people are exposed to on a daily basis, retaining people's attention is very hard. That is why, Visit Norway's aim is to make an impression on viewers, rather than reaching as many as possible.
At the core of their content strategy are the stories because, as Katrine explained, stories trigger emotions and memories, amongst many others. These triggers can awake a feeling in the traveller to want to visit the destination through the underlying motivations, which are: escape, broadening cultural horizons, social immersion, extravagant indulgence, control, energy, sharing and caring, adventure in the world of natural beauty and playful liberation.
Their campaigns follow a show, tell and sell model, which at the same time means they are data-driven as Katrine explained.
Katrine explained that they track engagement with campaign videos to learn about consumers interests, shares, etc., and drive sales from the audience.
She highlighted that the key of their distribution strategy is to be consistent with their presence and representation, which they do across all social media platforms. To have the best possible results, they always create channel-specific content, which allows for the material to have a bigger impact on the channel.
Katrine emphasised that messages that build consciousness indirectly build attractiveness for important customer groups, so she encouraged everyone to give advice.
In addition, she mentioned that Norway was awarded 2nd place for the 'best destination in 2022' by Lonely Planet in the matter of sustainability. Katrine said that in cases in which the industry does good, it is important to support them and get the message out!
Before the session ended, Nick asked Katrine how difficult it is to flatten the curve of visitors. She expressed that the key rests on targeting new groups constantly, but also on building new market opportunities off-seasons to allow for those visitors to come and still experience the country fully.
1. The sustainable strategy needs to observe all aspects of the strategy: marketing, industry, customers, etc.
2. It is crucial to properly identify the customer segments and adapt the content to the very different channels of the organisation.
Katrine has worked all her career in the tourism industry, and since 1999 in managing positions.
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