Tagged and won

OVER and out is the Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism’s (NMBT) latest campaign, but not without 100 lucky winners from all around the country and a shared enthusiasm for the city’s top ten icons in the tourism body’s first digitally run campaign.

“The idea behind the campaign was to interact with a local and national audience on a digital platform, drawing them to our Facebook page, web page and Twitter accounts in order to promote what Nelson Mandela Bay has to offer. We did just that – we had winners from all across the country and created new interest in our wonderful attractions,” said NMBT marketing manager Titus Chuene.

The competition ran over a period of ten weeks kicking off just before the April school holidays and concluded mid July, thereby promoting Nelson Mandela Bay as the ideal holiday destination for both summer and winter holiday makers.

“Essentially the earlier “I love NMB campaign” that ran until early January saw locals vote for what they believe the city’s icons should be and from these results we compiled a list of Nelson Mandela Bay’s top ten icons.  Of course, the next step was to promote these icons to a broader market and the Easter holiday period provided the ideal platform to do just that.  Leveraging off the traditional Easter egg treasure hunt concept the Tag and Win campaign was developed,” said Chuene.

The campaign ran on-line drawing on the power of social media and networks. People were encouraged to “like” the Nelson Mandela Bay – South Africa Facebook page after which they were led to a graphic image featuring a montage of the top ten icons in the city. Once there, the person was encouraged to click on a block that he or she believed was linked to one of the 101 prizes up for grabs.

“As the power of instant media and communication grows, it is critical that all sectors, especially tourism, keep up with the technological Joneses. The campaign aimed at doing just that, while still achieving its mandate of marketing the city, creating a hype about what’s on and literally put bums in beds as prize winners were drawn from around the country,” said NMBT CEO Mandlakazi Skefile.Skefile said that the main target markets for the campaign was the residents from Eastern Cape and those in the city’s “feeder markets” like Gauteng and the Free State. “We had winners from as far as Belville and Durbanville in Cape town to Mossel Bay, Empangeni and closer surrounding areas like Jeffreys Bay.”

Prizes for the competition varied from tickets to the rugby test match between South Africa and England to sponsored stays at top local hotels and a trip for a family of five on a luxury yacht during the city’s ever popular Splash Festival.  Smaller prizes ranged from digital cameras, NMBT hampers, breakfasts at local spots and sunglasses.

“In analysing the outcomes of this, our first complete digital campaign, we are comfortable that the knowledge and insights gained will enable us to develop innovative strategies that will drive traffic to all  our social media platforms”’ said Chuene.