One of the goals of this blog is to document and analyze people and organizations getting it right in the world of PR and Communications.
But before I start throwing accolades at a campaign by the fabulous city of Montreal’s Tourism Board let’s disclose the following so that there’s no confusion: I am a Montrealer – born, raised and currently living here. I love this city and it is very much a part of me.
Now that this is clear let’s take a gander at this campaign that is emblematic of these oh so changing times. The SMR that gives the basic overview of this very creative campaign can be viewed here. Thanks to Michelle Sullivan for sending it over.
So what makes the Montreal Tourism campaign worth a look?
First, the campaign generated real results. Conversions based upon the web based paid media campaign resulted in 51% increases in sales. Nothing to sneeze at in the current economic morass we are wading through.
The campaign’s innovative use of blogs is the real story for me though. Through a series of blogs called “Get the Local Buzz from Montrealers,” prospects were able to get straight up advice from locals on a variety of travel relevant topics topic (food , arts, nightlife, the gay scene, etc). As a traveller, I wish I could consult this type of resource pre departure.
As a PR person I am impressed at the method used to tell the story of a city. Unique visits to Tourism Montreal’s website increased by 19.5% as a result of this campaign. Moreover a tonne of content was generated that can now be used across a variety of platforms. It makes you wonder why other organizations either don’t use blogs or cannot figure out what the hell they’re supposed to do with them. This to me is a classic case of providing prospects with valuable content that is not pushed out via some kind of hard sell. Other firms should take note of Tourism Montreal’s great approach here.
I think this is a very modern campaign. Though I am not sure the SMR’s claim to being a 100% digitial effort is true (they bought ads in trade publications to target conference organizers) it is worth checking out.
[flv]http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/mmnr/smr/TM_GetTheLocalBuzz_CampaignResults1.flv[/flv]