If a picture can convey a 1000 words, what could be said of a video? Especially a poignant one, with just the right music, editing, filming technique. You could create a mood, an experience, and entice someone to a place they have never even heard of.
The power of film and video has been used by the movie industry for years, but tourism is now also catching on to using these things to tug on the emotions of potential visitors and not just on Television advertising, but campaigns in which they request the participation, interaction, and vlogging (video blogging) as a way to interact socially with travelers. One of my favourite contests was the one held just last year by Nova Scotia Tourism. Their "Why I love Nova Scotia" was a great hit.
Taking on the whole concept of the fact that the new young adult consumer would rather hear what everyday people have to say about a place rather than the "experts" I thought this would be the best similar comparison to TripAdvisor as possible.
The video responses were wonderful, and I must say, I've never been so proud of my home province as I am this year. Travelling gives you perspective that you couldn't have and an appreciation for home like nothing else can. If you have nothing to compare it to, you might think Nova Scotia was boring, or small-town mentality. But when you've seen other places and what goes on that nobody really talks about... you realize. That it's not boring - it's safe. It's not small-town - people are down to earth and friendly. People help each other and it's a shock, not an expectation to be robbed.
The idea of companies using social media like youtube is becoming bigger and bigger. Since campaigns like "The Best Job In The World" put out by Queensland Tourism, Australia (http://www.islandreefjob.com/) the industry is recognizing that a) people love contests b) people love to make videos of themselves and c) these everyday people can actually market a tourism product better than a 15 second bit in between Oprah and Dr. Phil. Tourism is about creating an experience, and if they can capture that experience on film, it is preserved forever. It makes people say "If they can do it, I can too" and is in my opinion one of the best tools out there and should be used more often.
Nova Scotia Tourism has their own youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/NovaScotiaTourism#p/u/55/b6RaXoKRqLw which has just under 70 videos that highlight in various ways the key elements of Nova Scotia tourism : The people, the food, the coast, the music, the fun things to do and varies from home-made shaky-hand-cam's to professional done documentary style promotion.
Overall NS Tourism is doing more than I expected when I clicked on the youtube channel link and I was very pleased to see our very own Rose Eddy's contribution for The "I love Nova Scotia" Contest amoung the list.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A pleasure to read! And I learned something new - vlogging! Thanks!
ReplyDelete