KOREA TOURISM ORGANIZATION'S GLOBAL PAID MEDIA CAMPAIGN

TitleKOREA TOURISM ORGANIZATION'S GLOBAL PAID MEDIA CAMPAIGN
BrandKOREA TOURISM ORGANIZATION
Product / ServiceTOURISM IN SOUTH KOREA
CategoryC03. Data Driven Targeting
EntrantEDELMAN Korea, SOUTH KOREA
Idea Creation EDELMAN Korea, SOUTH KOREA
Media Placement EDELMAN Korea, SOUTH KOREA

Credits

Name Company Position
Joseph Jung Edelman Korea Media Manager

Why is this work relevant for Media?

The Korea Tourism Organization’s 2018 Overseas Marketing Project promoted South Korea as a desirable travel destination in 13 countries. This KTO's campaign was organized into three stages: "Teaser → Target Test → Amplification". Through teaser and target-test stage, we were able to find out which contents worked better for each country. With learnings from teaser and target-test stage, we effectively amplified the campaign among our core target audience in each country, resulting in successful achievement.

Background

In 2017, the Korean tourism industry was heavily depressed. Growth had plummeted in the wake of China's "Ban on Korean Tourism", and ongoing confrontations with North Korea had led to foreigners developing an image of South Korea as a "dangerous place" where war could break out at any time. In addition, Seoul’s relatively limited awareness of shopping tourism has served as an obstacle. However, Korea’s hosting of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang went a long way towards altering negative perceptions of Korea. Furthermore, it served as a launching point for the industry to start building positive impressions of Korean tourism again. According to this environment, we established two objectives: - To increase foreign travelers’ interest in visiting South Korea by highlighting Korea as a differentiated tourist destination - To strengthen awareness of and affinity towards Korea by using the halo effect produced by the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

In the era of digitalization, the customer journey is an essential component of ASK (a step before ACT). Although the basic perception and opinion of traveling in Korean were not bad, there were not enough questions asked to trigger action, such as looking up more information or actually visiting Korea. We needed customer communication activities that would generate and proliferate many questions about Korea in the digital environment. The content and strategy were tailored according to "experience" to promote audience interest and break any negative perceptions of Korean tourism. The content focuses on the interesting aspects of Korea that were mentioned in the global qualitative survey. This research guided our strategy, and led us to produce 21 videos (six for main VOD and fifteen for viral VOD) that were categorized according to the type of traveling tourists would be doing (daily life, Hallyu, adventure, healing, history & tradition, and trends).

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The campaign was subdivided in fragmented stages so that content could be customized according to traveler types. Our target was millennials aged 18 to 34, who value diversity and experience more than any other factors. For each of the six traveler types, we applied the appropriate demographic setting and lookalike model. Furthermore, for the U.S. and China, we identified regions where there was more awareness of Hallyu - and or Korean travel. We selected which countries to execute the campaign in, and then allocated the budget. Then various indicators such as the number of visitors, growth rate, preference for Korean tourism, percentage of Facebook followers, VTR, CPV, and others were calculated and the budgets were adjusted accordingly. YouTube and Facebook were the main players, as they can achieve the highest coverage globally. For China, we used Youku and Toutiao, which were expected to have the best results among local media.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Campaign execution was organized into three stages: "Teaser → Target Test → Amplification Phase" First of all, we released a teaser video with the goal of reaching 20% of our target three times. After that, we exposed six segmented target groups across thirteen countries to six pieces of content (13*6*6) during the target test period. This process verified the preferences of each target and the efficiency of each campaign. The campaign was carried out for 70 days from then. In the first 30 days, we adjusted our budget allocations according to which target groups and material performed well, and which performed poorly. During the second phase, we broadened the demographic to people aged 35 to 44 in order to extend our target reach. We also detargeted existing followers and added content that included the models to optimize target reach, ensuring that we maximized efficiency for the length of the campaign.

List the results (30% of vote)

Throughout the execution, we obtained quantitative success and qualitative insight for each country. Quantitatively, the campaign secured 3.4 billion views and resulted in 231% on the previous year. According to research, the Korean Tourism Organization received a +4.1% boost in awareness and a +1.2% lift in preference. Qualitatively, we noticed a difference in results between main videos and viral videos depending on the country. Main videos were geared to emphasize branding, but viral videos targeted consumers through tangible messages. As a result, some countries showed a high rate of interest in the Daily Life viral videos, while the highest rates of interest for the main videos were in the History & Tradition and Hallyu. The results showed people preferred artistic, colorful scenes for branding videos, whereas they preferred tangible and daily experience for viral content.

Describe the use of data, or how the data enhanced the campaign output

To spend $4.5 million budget efficiently, we executed test-campaign to find out which type/subject of material would be effective for each country. Approximately 1,700 cases of campaign scenario were set, allowing us to gain deeper insights for each country. People in Japan, US, and Hongkong preferred daily-life contents, whereas people in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam have strong interests in K-wave contents. Based on the above-accumulated data, we made a proper budget allocation with the preferred contents for each country. This plan and execution produced successful achievement, recording +4.1% boost in awareness of Korea and a +1.2% lift in preference towards Korea.

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