I was recently looking into merchandise for tour operators. We’ve all seen merch being offered as an add-on to a tour, and some really don't hit the mark.
No, I don't want a postcard with your giant logo, but a fridge magnet with your excellent destination and your little logo in the corner, absolutely.
As someone running food tours, I lean towards edible goodies, but then that's short-term with no trigger memory later. In comparison, metal re-usable straws would fit my ethos and have a long-term attachment value.
Is anyone doing this? and if so, what do you offer? How are you selling it (through your website, end of the tour etc.)? Are you using something like Shopify to manage your inventory?
I really appreciate any help you can provide 💜
+ 307 others joined this month
Comments
Hi there. I am Caroline (Founder of Map Your City), we are regularly publishing some articles and interviews around destination marketing - since our platform empowers destination marketers.
👉 We would be delighted to hear about some memorable success story or campaign from your experience that highlights the power of effective destination marketing?
We just had a really successful co-marketing campaign with the Ireland tourism board this last fall. We readied a lot of content in preparation for an "Ireland Week" from our assets and some from the tourism board to push out through all of our channels and boost with more budget than our norm. But the key was having one of our UnFluencers (our partner influencers who we're differentiating for their dedication to our slow travel style) on the ground creating realtime, beautiful content to play off the scheduled content. Results were much better than expected and far beyond what the budget would normally produce.
Great example Richard! Love this. So would you say it was the co-marketing/ influencer co-lab that made it work much better or was it the mix of scheduled and realtime content especially? And did you use social media live video streams?
The “secret sauce” was that all of the ingredients felt important. We had a tourism board with a significant following supporting and amplifying, mixed with real time relevance.
We didn’t use live, but it’s certainly a thought for next time!
Great to hear that. Certainly understand the massive reach partners like that can bring. Do you mind me asking how much this co-lab improved conversion for you compared to other campaigns on similar budget?
Conversion suffered a tad, because the goal was reach for the campaign, as I expect it always would be on those collaborations. Targeted reach is the desire, but definitely wanting to cast a wider net.
Thanks so much for those insights Richard.
👋 Feel free to still join in the discussion or add your success story or campaign - we love to hear.