Sponsored content is just one type of native advertising: the brand-sponsored articles and videos that appear on the sites and social platforms of publishers and influencers. Basically, sponsored content is the intersection of native advertising and branded content.
Sponsored content is just one type of native advertising: the brand-sponsored articles and videos that appear on the sites and social platforms of publishers and influencers. Basically, sponsored content is the intersection of native advertising and branded content.
Branded content is content that does not involve traditional advertising. It can include articles, videos, podcasts, and even live elements that bring relevant value to the consumer. It is not advertising in the way most people think of advertising (commercials, banner ads, social media ads, etc.). Branded content marketing focuses on people’s stories. It starts with people, their stories, lives and problems. It establishes a link between people and the brand.
Below are a couple of examples of digital publisher partnerships with various destinations in a variety of niches.
This collaboration is a seven-genre-wide celebration of music in the United States. Using one aspect of a country’s culture as a jumping-off point for an international travel campaign is a bold choice, but the finished product is undeniably stunning: a digital pop-up book with an intuitive reading feature that reveals more of the article with every scroll. The level of thought and care put into this piece by both The Telegraph and Visit the USA is incredible — they even made playlists for it together with Spotify, that can be played right on the site. check it out for yourself here.
In 2015, BBC Worldwide, VisitBritain and British Airways partnered to launch a dedicated content portal called BBC Britain that tells a compelling story of modern Britain and brings to life the UK’s global appeal.
This content solution combined specially commissioned articles, videos and images with relevant ‘lifestyle’ content drawn from across BBC.com. BBC Worldwide maintains full editorial control while VisitBritain and British Airways have the entire advertising inventory.
In its first week, BBC Britain attracted over one million visitors.
In partnership with National Geographic, Tourism New Zealand launched a campaign that focuses on connecting visitors to New Zealand's people as well as its natural beauty.
Visitors have shared that one of the best parts of their visit is engaging with local people and the warm sense of welcome they receive makes their visit very memorable. New Zealanders call this feeling manaakitanga, an indigenous Maori concept representing a unique style of hospitality, generosity, and kindness, is something that all travellers talk about upon their return home from the country.
The campaign strives to bring this feeling to life through branded content series from National Geographic Travel. The tourism board also educates travel agents nationwide about manaakitanga and connections between New Zealand’s people, land and culture with the help of six Travel Trade Ambassadors hosted by the tourism organisation.
These ambassadors star in a social media campaign and a series of training videos that follow their own journeys of manaakitanga.
Vice partnered with Visit Copenhagen, sending Brandon Jew, Chef at Mr Jiu’s in San Francisco to Copenhagen. In the video, Brandon travels to Copenhagen to spend a weekend with Kristian, a chef at 108 restaurants in Copenhagen, immersing himself in the life of the restaurant, spending time with their farmers and suppliers, and getting to know the life of the chef. From the local winebar, the kitchen crew frequents after hours to the fermentation bunker that 108 has built up together with Noma.
This partnership perfectly demonstrates a new face of food tourism promotion that emphasises the people who make up the local food scene, and the spirit of culinary collaboration, innovation, and celebration that all visitors can experience, regardless of their budget. In other words, it’s not about the food, it's about the story behind the food.
In 2018, HBO announced the launched of a series of “Legacy Experiences” and a studio tour in Northern Ireland. For the first time ever, fans will be able to visit iconic sets from the series - with plans underway to exhibit standing sets for iconic locations like Winterfell, Castle Black and Kings Landing alongside a formal studio tour at Banbridge's Linen Mill Studios.
The Game of Thrones series opened up a global stage for marketing Ireland as a tourism destination. The foundation for Tourism Ireland's venture into using screen tourism as a marketing tool is its partnership with HBO which has evolved and grown over the years.
A filming location of Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland. Image: PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images[/caption]
Visit Seattle kicked off 2018 by debuting “Dear Seattle,” a series of short films around the theme “A Love Letter to Seattle.” After prominent directors – all with local ties to Seattle – worked on their projects in the Emerald City to capture what they love most about the destination, Visit Seattle, launched the film series on VISITSEATTLE.tv and SundanceTV throughout 2018. Prominent filmmakers include Dave Grohl, J.J Augustavo, Josh Taft and Megan Griffiths.
The goal of this campaign was to encourage 18-30-year-olds to travel to Australia working holiday visa. Young consumers represent a massive opportunity for Tourism Australia. They stay longer, spend more and disperse further than any other audience. But they’re a difficult audience to define and engage. They vary in age, life stage, location, media habits and reason for travelling.
Buzzfeed created a two-part campaign featuring both original branded content and editorial content to introduce young consumers to the unique culture and beauty that Australia offers and motivate them to visit.
The BuzzFeed audience seeks the life-changing adventure and fun that awaits on a trip to Australia and the content delivered on this desire. The strategic insight was brought to life in a branded campaign that included eleven Bring Me travel videos, eight co-branded posts, and twelve Snapchat assets, all distributed across four markets. Tourism Australia also partnered with BuzzFeed to create the BuzzFeed Mateship program, which included a “Mates” Facebook page, recruitment and training of eight ‘Mates’ from the four markets, as well as 102 posts and 150 videos.
The eight ‘Mates’ was chosen from more than 220 applicants, learned the fundamentals of reporting and producing in Australia, and then hit the road with BuzzFeed editors to produce content for over 200 days across the six-month project. While on the road, they reported on their travel experiences, including everything from food and wine to nature and wildlife, communicating across both BuzzFeed and Tourism Australia’s social channels.
Other Bring Me Videos: Find the happiest animal in the world on Rottnest Island; Stay overnight at Taronga Zoo, one of the world’s most beautiful zoos; Have your mind blown by boozy chocolate cheese at Curds & Whey; Swim and play with sea lions at Seal Cove; Take a romantic getaway to Thalia Haven, a private Tasmanian oasis.
Destination Toronto and Destination Canada partnered with Samira Wiley, an actor on the popular Netflix show Orange Is the New Black and Vanity Fair to produce 8 short clips for Instagram Stories, which followed Samira around Toronto as she explored her favourite spots in the city. The intro clip was published as a teaser @VanityFair’s (6 million followers) Instagram Stories feed, which then directed fans and followers to watch the full story on the @destination_toronto’s Instagram page.
Posting the intro on the Vanity Fair's Stories as a teaser meant that the campaign reached a much larger audience with a higher click-through-rate as they were already invested in the story because of the teaser. The full story (with the reposted intro) is now permanently pinned to Toronto Tourism’s Highlighted Stories.
Along with Instagram Stories, Samira Wiley (@whododatlikedat | 2.8m followers) posted an update about filming the paid partnership on her Instagram page which resulted in 61,483 likes and Vanity Fair published a branded/sponsored article with backlinks to the See Toronto Now’s website.
The £2.5 million ‘Join the World – #MyMicrogap’ campaign targets young people with experiences and activities are typically taken during a gap-year that can be condensed into a micro-holiday of one to three nights in the UK. The campaign kicked off in October 2018, with the first in a series of short films that are planned to be rolled out across digital display and social media channels during the coming months.
Content for the ‘Join the World – #MyMicrogap’, campaign, is being developed in partnership with VICE, based on the motivations for micro-gaps. As well as running across VICE’s social media channels, #MyMicrogap would also drive online traffic to www.visitbritain.com/jointheworld with micro-gap itineraries and experiences to explore.
The partnership sought to highlight three aspects of Quebec cultural that make it unique: its creativity, authenticity and nature.
To showcase these traits, BBC StoryWorks created Boundless Adventures - a branded content series within BBC Travel. It comprised six articles about road trips that visitors to Québec could enjoy: Urban Vacations, Gastronomic Getaways, Living History, Outdoor Adventures, Old World Charm, and Ultimate Escape.
The content was amplified via time-specific rich media ads across BBC.com, BBC Travel, BBC Culture, BBC Earth, News and Business sections and mobile that highlighted things to do in Québec during different parts of the day. Plus audience targeting of cultural and luxury travellers, and travel enthusiasts.
The campaign delivered over 9 million ad impressions and 8,900 click-throughs.
Sponsored content is just one type of native advertising: the brand-sponsored articles and videos that appear on the sites and social platforms of publishers and influencers. Basically, sponsored content is the intersection of native advertising and branded content.
Branded content is content that does not involve traditional advertising. It can include articles, videos, podcasts, and even live elements that bring relevant value to the consumer. It is not advertising in the way most people think of advertising (commercials, banner ads, social media ads, etc.). Branded content marketing focuses on people’s stories. It starts with people, their stories, lives and problems. It establishes a link between people and the brand.
Below are a couple of examples of digital publisher partnerships with various destinations in a variety of niches.
This collaboration is a seven-genre-wide celebration of music in the United States. Using one aspect of a country’s culture as a jumping-off point for an international travel campaign is a bold choice, but the finished product is undeniably stunning: a digital pop-up book with an intuitive reading feature that reveals more of the article with every scroll. The level of thought and care put into this piece by both The Telegraph and Visit the USA is incredible — they even made playlists for it together with Spotify, that can be played right on the site. check it out for yourself here.
In 2015, BBC Worldwide, VisitBritain and British Airways partnered to launch a dedicated content portal called BBC Britain that tells a compelling story of modern Britain and brings to life the UK’s global appeal.
This content solution combined specially commissioned articles, videos and images with relevant ‘lifestyle’ content drawn from across BBC.com. BBC Worldwide maintains full editorial control while VisitBritain and British Airways have the entire advertising inventory.
In its first week, BBC Britain attracted over one million visitors.
In partnership with National Geographic, Tourism New Zealand launched a campaign that focuses on connecting visitors to New Zealand's people as well as its natural beauty.
Visitors have shared that one of the best parts of their visit is engaging with local people and the warm sense of welcome they receive makes their visit very memorable. New Zealanders call this feeling manaakitanga, an indigenous Maori concept representing a unique style of hospitality, generosity, and kindness, is something that all travellers talk about upon their return home from the country.
The campaign strives to bring this feeling to life through branded content series from National Geographic Travel. The tourism board also educates travel agents nationwide about manaakitanga and connections between New Zealand’s people, land and culture with the help of six Travel Trade Ambassadors hosted by the tourism organisation.
These ambassadors star in a social media campaign and a series of training videos that follow their own journeys of manaakitanga.
Vice partnered with Visit Copenhagen, sending Brandon Jew, Chef at Mr Jiu’s in San Francisco to Copenhagen. In the video, Brandon travels to Copenhagen to spend a weekend with Kristian, a chef at 108 restaurants in Copenhagen, immersing himself in the life of the restaurant, spending time with their farmers and suppliers, and getting to know the life of the chef. From the local winebar, the kitchen crew frequents after hours to the fermentation bunker that 108 has built up together with Noma.
This partnership perfectly demonstrates a new face of food tourism promotion that emphasises the people who make up the local food scene, and the spirit of culinary collaboration, innovation, and celebration that all visitors can experience, regardless of their budget. In other words, it’s not about the food, it's about the story behind the food.
In 2018, HBO announced the launched of a series of “Legacy Experiences” and a studio tour in Northern Ireland. For the first time ever, fans will be able to visit iconic sets from the series - with plans underway to exhibit standing sets for iconic locations like Winterfell, Castle Black and Kings Landing alongside a formal studio tour at Banbridge's Linen Mill Studios.
The Game of Thrones series opened up a global stage for marketing Ireland as a tourism destination. The foundation for Tourism Ireland's venture into using screen tourism as a marketing tool is its partnership with HBO which has evolved and grown over the years.
A filming location of Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland. Image: PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images[/caption]
Visit Seattle kicked off 2018 by debuting “Dear Seattle,” a series of short films around the theme “A Love Letter to Seattle.” After prominent directors – all with local ties to Seattle – worked on their projects in the Emerald City to capture what they love most about the destination, Visit Seattle, launched the film series on VISITSEATTLE.tv and SundanceTV throughout 2018. Prominent filmmakers include Dave Grohl, J.J Augustavo, Josh Taft and Megan Griffiths.
The goal of this campaign was to encourage 18-30-year-olds to travel to Australia working holiday visa. Young consumers represent a massive opportunity for Tourism Australia. They stay longer, spend more and disperse further than any other audience. But they’re a difficult audience to define and engage. They vary in age, life stage, location, media habits and reason for travelling.
Buzzfeed created a two-part campaign featuring both original branded content and editorial content to introduce young consumers to the unique culture and beauty that Australia offers and motivate them to visit.
The BuzzFeed audience seeks the life-changing adventure and fun that awaits on a trip to Australia and the content delivered on this desire. The strategic insight was brought to life in a branded campaign that included eleven Bring Me travel videos, eight co-branded posts, and twelve Snapchat assets, all distributed across four markets. Tourism Australia also partnered with BuzzFeed to create the BuzzFeed Mateship program, which included a “Mates” Facebook page, recruitment and training of eight ‘Mates’ from the four markets, as well as 102 posts and 150 videos.
The eight ‘Mates’ was chosen from more than 220 applicants, learned the fundamentals of reporting and producing in Australia, and then hit the road with BuzzFeed editors to produce content for over 200 days across the six-month project. While on the road, they reported on their travel experiences, including everything from food and wine to nature and wildlife, communicating across both BuzzFeed and Tourism Australia’s social channels.
Other Bring Me Videos: Find the happiest animal in the world on Rottnest Island; Stay overnight at Taronga Zoo, one of the world’s most beautiful zoos; Have your mind blown by boozy chocolate cheese at Curds & Whey; Swim and play with sea lions at Seal Cove; Take a romantic getaway to Thalia Haven, a private Tasmanian oasis.
Destination Toronto and Destination Canada partnered with Samira Wiley, an actor on the popular Netflix show Orange Is the New Black and Vanity Fair to produce 8 short clips for Instagram Stories, which followed Samira around Toronto as she explored her favourite spots in the city. The intro clip was published as a teaser @VanityFair’s (6 million followers) Instagram Stories feed, which then directed fans and followers to watch the full story on the @destination_toronto’s Instagram page.
Posting the intro on the Vanity Fair's Stories as a teaser meant that the campaign reached a much larger audience with a higher click-through-rate as they were already invested in the story because of the teaser. The full story (with the reposted intro) is now permanently pinned to Toronto Tourism’s Highlighted Stories.
Along with Instagram Stories, Samira Wiley (@whododatlikedat | 2.8m followers) posted an update about filming the paid partnership on her Instagram page which resulted in 61,483 likes and Vanity Fair published a branded/sponsored article with backlinks to the See Toronto Now’s website.
The £2.5 million ‘Join the World – #MyMicrogap’ campaign targets young people with experiences and activities are typically taken during a gap-year that can be condensed into a micro-holiday of one to three nights in the UK. The campaign kicked off in October 2018, with the first in a series of short films that are planned to be rolled out across digital display and social media channels during the coming months.
Content for the ‘Join the World – #MyMicrogap’, campaign, is being developed in partnership with VICE, based on the motivations for micro-gaps. As well as running across VICE’s social media channels, #MyMicrogap would also drive online traffic to www.visitbritain.com/jointheworld with micro-gap itineraries and experiences to explore.
The partnership sought to highlight three aspects of Quebec cultural that make it unique: its creativity, authenticity and nature.
To showcase these traits, BBC StoryWorks created Boundless Adventures - a branded content series within BBC Travel. It comprised six articles about road trips that visitors to Québec could enjoy: Urban Vacations, Gastronomic Getaways, Living History, Outdoor Adventures, Old World Charm, and Ultimate Escape.
The content was amplified via time-specific rich media ads across BBC.com, BBC Travel, BBC Culture, BBC Earth, News and Business sections and mobile that highlighted things to do in Québec during different parts of the day. Plus audience targeting of cultural and luxury travellers, and travel enthusiasts.
The campaign delivered over 9 million ad impressions and 8,900 click-throughs.
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