Driving Growth with Limited Resources

While many DMOs increasingly face the challenge of budgetary constraints, directing attention to a big idea can spark conversations.

As government entities, many DMOs increasingly face the challenge of budgetary constraints. This necessitates a careful review of spending priorities. Such actions require operations to be streamlined and clear prioritisation to deliver a strong return on investment by seeking more efficient and cost-effective promotion. Visit Sweden identified the opportunity of being bold by directing attention to a big idea or major issue to attract international attention and spark conversations.

As government entities, many DMOs increasingly face the challenge of budgetary constraints. This necessitates a careful review of spending priorities. Such actions require DMOs to streamline their operations and prioritise how they deliver a strong return on investment by seeking more efficient and cost-effective promotion. Nils Persson, from Visit Sweden, shares transformation highlights from this strategic shift to maintaining performance and visibility despite reduced resource availability.

‍

Streamlining Global Marketing

‍

Transitioning from a joint venture, Visit Sweden entered full public ownership in 2020. This process required operational procedures to change and enhanced transparency in public procurement. With the new remit triggered by this shift, consolidation became a priority, including a reduction from 110 full-time employees to 48. At the same time, 13 marketing plans and 10 PR systems for different target markets were combined into a singular approach, while a CRM system was developed. This centralisation of activities enabled synergies to develop and improve marketing integration based on cross-functional teamwork. It also enhanced knowledge sharing and the retention of expertise within the DMO and provided a framework for consistent analysis and reporting.

‍

A static budget compounded by inflation and a weak Swedish krona brought budgetary challenges to the fore. This meant enhanced efficiency was key to maintaining results. Visit Sweden adopted a phased and structured transformation, firstly through organisational restructuring to establish a solid foundation in the first year and then scaling up, accelerating and optimising operations. This reorganisation significantly improved employee satisfaction, bringing the employee net promoter score from a negative up to +35. However, as an iterative process, ongoing changes are key to remaining relevant and adapting alongside international developments.

‍

This move towards a more collaborative structure enabled Visit Sweden to function as 'one company, with one common goal', increasing organisational agility and breaking the previous siloed and locally-oriented approach to targeting each market separately. Identifying its core functions of branding, marketing and industry support and understanding the specific roles needed to target each market, Visit Sweden established deeper linkages with support functions to complement the implementation of a unified brand platform and business plan. This also allowed diverse positioning and communication concepts to be better connected at a global level to develop a more cohesive brand narrative and message.

‍

‍

The brand platform, jointly developed with regional destinations and the wider industry simplifies and positions Sweden as a travel destination. This is supported by a lot of useful content that outlines Sweden's diversity in terms of products, regions and seasons that is presented in an attractive and accessible manner. Building upon this is the creation of optimal conditions for effective marketing and responsiveness to the changing world. Framing this approach and underlining their ambition, Visit Sweden developed a new promise of "shaping the new era of purposeful travel”. Recognising the need for each region to have their own brand, the communication concept of "a destination of a different nature” and the theme of “luxury of a different nature” unite efforts across the entire country through a consistent message that focuses on the Swedish lifestyle and an agreed tone of voice.

Creating Engagement on a Budget

‍

Prioritising the right actions across all marketing and branding activities was key to ensuring the effective implementation of this new cross-functional approach. Crucially, reflecting on performance helped to identify and remove elements that no longer created value. This meant that an enhanced focus could be placed on the areas where impact would be generated. With a core objective to become more strategic with brand activations, Visit Sweden tapped into research insights to identify the drivers of strong brands and effective campaigns:

Les Binet and Peter Field, working for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, proposed the 60/40 rule for marketing budget ratios. This approach suggests allocating 60% of budgets for brand building and long-term objectives, with 40% focused on short-term conversions.
Byron Sharp, from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, emphasises how growing a brand requires it to be distinctive, noticeable and consistent, while also remaining fresh by tapping into emerging trends.
Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, contrasts emotional and analytical cognitive processes and the factors people use to make decisions.
Micael Dahlen and Sara Rosengren, from the Stockholm School of Economics, highlight the importance of creativity and relevance for generating a high share of voice and to maximise reach.

Fortunately, ingenuity and creativity are not new for the Swedish tourism industry. The Swedish Number in 2016 connected travellers with Swedes and encouraged them to have open conversations about any topic, leveraging Sweden's position as the first country to abolish censorship. Tapping into another key opportunity to highlight Sweden's right to roam and the growing popularity of short-term rentals, Visit Sweden even created a listing for the entire country on Airbnb in 2017.

‍

However, while creativity and relevancy could be maintained, the challenge faced by Visit Sweden in their new marketing and branding approach was achieving reach and frequency on a limited budget. On the other hand, their global campaigns provide strong opportunities to increase exposure.

‍

Recognising that travel marketing can sometimes be generic, presenting challenges with creating brand engagement, Visit Sweden identified the opportunity of being bold by directing attention to a big idea or major issue to attract international attention and spark conversations. This approach shapes the development of all their campaigns and helped to structure decisions by challenging the traditional conventions of destination marketing. This agility has been a key factor in Visit Sweden's refined approach to marketing, using global trends to be distinctive and tap into cultural conversations. These campaigns embrace humour to engage audiences on a deeper level while also sharing in-depth information about Sweden.

Discover the Originals: In autumn 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic, in which families across the world were stuck at home, Visit Sweden launched a campaign to reclaim the names of Swedish places from IKEA. Producing a guide to 21 locations on Visit Sweden's website, this was rapidly covered by the Swedish media before going global, with over 700 articles and 300 blogs published across 49 countries and a 2.1 billion media reach.

‍

Sweden not Switzerland: Research found that 50% of people struggle to see the difference between Sweden and Switzerland, including President Biden of the USA. This created an opportunity for a quirky campaign that highlighted key differentiators between the two countries, with the public also able to share ideas that would shape the development of a formal contract. Supported by testing people's knowledge about Sweden on social media and a friendly battle with the Swiss embassy in the US, this campaign, with over 1,000 articles published across 45 countries generated a 1.4 billion reach and record social engagement for the DMO. Going beyond broad metrics of reach, the campaign also generated 1,155% more web traffic than previous campaigns, with an average dwell time of 10 minutes among web visitors. Surveys also confirmed the correlation between exposure to the campaign and interest in visiting Sweden, with 89% positivity.

‍

Visit the Original Sweden: With eight places in the world called Sweden, Visit Sweden wrote an open letter to the EU's Intellectual Property Office to make a formal request to trademark the country's name and launched a petition to garner public support. This campaign tackles the challenge of destination dupes and brought attention to the authenticity of visiting the country of Sweden.

‍

These three campaigns effectively portray how Visit Sweden's strategic approach to marketing is focused on establishing edgy ideas and implementing tangible actions to create instant visibility and enhanced memorability. This is supported by an activation and media strategy that encourages others to report on the stories being highlighted to deliver regular communication with target audiences and ultimately create impact without using significant resources. At the centre of these unorthodox and eccentric campaigns is the ability to share a 360 degree story about Sweden's culture and international appeal, where these elements are subtly weaved into a broader topical story.

‍

Building upon this national approach, similar campaigns have been taken at a local level. When Erling Haaland became one of the most famous footballers in the word, the Swedish province of Halland had its online presence severely diminished. This made it almost impossible to find information about the destination, with Google even suggesting that Halland was a spelling mistake. To counter this, at the end of 2022, Visit Halland launched an open letter to sports journalists and football fans across the world to request they double check their spelling to avoid causing any more confusion. This simple action generated 1,100 articles across 104 countries, showing how even a single letter can have a substantial value with the right framing and context.

‍

‍

Complementing these timely PR-focused activations, powerful storytelling is also important for attracting year-round attention. As a horror story, Spellbound by Sweden was written by the internationally celebrated Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, providing a unique approach to communicating about the country's history and culture through a focus on folklore and Sweden's forests. This campaign brought mythological creatures to life through an audio story, tapping into the growth of streaming platforms, such as Spotify, for content consumption. Versions in English, French and German also enhance the effective targeting of Sweden's main markets.

‍

Discover the secrets to impactful storytelling

‍

The success of Visit Sweden's innovative marketing strategy can be seen in the exceptional performance achieved. Despite tightening budgets, international searches for Sweden as a destination continue to climb, with over a million more searches in Q1 2024 than the pre-pandemic peak in Q3 2019.

‍

Key Takeaways

Consolidate resources: To streamline operations and improve efficiency, it is crucial to centralise marketing plans and create alignment across all markets, reducing the potential for duplication of efforts. A unified strategic approach will ensure that all activities work towards a shared objective.
Use cross-functional collaboration: It's vital to break down silos and encourage teams from different departments to work together. Implementing collaborative tools and processes facilitates knowledge sharing and teamwork to bring different perspectives and create synergies that enhance problem-solving. This also aids the retention of expertise within a company by reducing reliance on individual team members.
Prioritise value creation: Organisations should identify and focus on the activities that generate the greatest value and should not be afraid to remove less productive activities to free up resources. Regular performance assessments and adjustments are essential to delivering tangible results and avoiding the trap of spreading resources too thinly.
Adopt phased restructuring: Implement a step-by-step approach to transformation, starting with establishing a solid foundation before scaling up. It is essential to communicate each step of the process to ensure buy-in from employees and to be flexible and adaptable in managing the new processes and structures.
Stimulate joint input for brand guidelines: Involve stakeholders from across the industry in the development of a new brand platform. Ensure that the brand and communication strategies reflect the interests and perspectives of all stakeholders to invite ownership from all key players and create a more unified brand strategy, while enabling some flexibility in the way the message is communicated.
Understand core differentiators: Identify the unique aspects of your destination and their cultural context. Use this knowledge to develop marketing campaigns that highlight these specific characteristics, tapping into cultural conversations and trends to stay relevant.
Develop a cohesive narrative: Craft a clear and consistent brand narrative that resonates with the target audience. This approach ensures that all communication efforts reinforce the core message and contribute to a clear identity, with improved brand recall.
Build on research: Inform marketing strategy and campaign development with clearly defined research. Avoiding a reliance on intuition by grounding decisions on data enables more enlightened decisions and supports a deeper understanding of audiences and market trends. This reduces the risk of missteps.
Dare to be a little provocative: Be willing to challenge conventions and do things differently. By taking risks and thinking outside the box, your destination will stand out from the competition. Use bold ideas to capture the attention, aiming to start conversations and engage audiences on an emotional level and leave a lasting impression.
Capture attention through humour: Creatively embrace comedy and use a playful approach to connect your campaign narrative with audiences to quickly capture attention, maximise intrigue and optimise engagement. When used strategically, a light-hearted approach makes brands more relatable.
Intertwine facts within broader stories: Integrating detailed information within a larger narrative enables compelling stories to be told that go beyond surface-level marketing and provide a deeper understanding. This creates a more immersive experience, helping to build stronger relationships with the audience.