The Purposeful Brand Award
2024
Nominee
Finalist
Shortlist
Winner
Dark Sky Terschelling
TerschellingPartners
The Dark Sky Terschelling campaign was designed to increase awareness of Terschelling’s off-season attractions and directly boost bookings by targeting "Adventure Seekers." By promoting the unique Dark Sky Park status of Terschelling, the campaign highlighted the island's pristine night skies as a nature-first experience. At its core, this campaign encouraged sustainable travel and contributed positively to the local economy, while preserving the environment.
The Challenge
The stars have always inspired us. For explorers, they were a compass; for scientists, a source of curiosity; and for all of us, they told stories. Who didn’t enjoy looking up at the stars as a child? Who still does? Think of the Big Dipper, the Milky Way... the magic of the night sky.
But that night sky? It’s not visible everywhere anymore. Unfortunately, more than 80% of people worldwide can no longer see the Milky Way with the naked eye due to light pollution.
Our challenge? How do we sustainably increase awareness and drive off-season visitation to Terschelling, particularly among the "Adventure Seekers," a group focused on nature, sustainability, and authentic experiences?
The Insight
Sustainable and nature-based tourism is gaining momentum as more travelers seek to reconnect with nature. Terschelling’s Dark Sky Park designation offers a unique, eco-friendly experience, perfectly suited to meet this demand, yet its potential remained largely untapped.
The Strategy
We identified a key opportunity to leverage the Dark Sky designation by positioning Terschelling as a prime destination for stargazing and eco-conscious travel. Our approach centered on targeting the Adventure Seekers—an audience segment interested in self-discovery and sustainability—and promoting off-season visits to the island.
This allowed us to drive visitation while reinforcing Terschelling’s commitment to preserving its natural environment, boosting the local economy during slower months, and positioning the island as a leader in sustainable tourism.
Judges Comments
Identifying Dark Sky Terschelling as a unique positioning opportunity and developing an extensive full-funnel campaign around it so extensively deserves considerable recognition.
The campaign demonstrates a clear understanding of the needs and drivers for domestic tourism and how to deliver visitation to what is a somewhat harder to reach destination, presenting considerable barriers when it comes to achieving strong off-season performance. The disciplined focus is what really wins here in bringing the overall concept together, understanding the Dark Sky as a niche and clear match for both the destination and its potential visitors.
The strategy is well thought through, comprehensive and considers every aspect from the conceptual and creative approach all the way through to fulfilment, reach and conversion. The collaboration between local industry, ferry providers and local figures who front the campaign is also central to the overall success. The judges particularly liked the creative execution overall, the coherence and consistency as well as the use of powerful imagery and video, which demonstrated clear results amongst audiences.
The data provided shows a phenomenal return on investment, achieving huge impact at every level, this was especially the case for the most important metrics in terms of visits, overnights, length of stay and package sales.
As a closing comment - the judges felt that this also deserves recognition for the sense of purpose and values which sit at the heart of the campaign. Not only does it successfully address the dips in tourism off-season, thus presenting strong benefits economically which is key to retaining local jobs, but it also presents itself as an educational platform on the environmental aspects highlighted in the campaign. It makes visitors aware of their impact - not only where and how they choose to travel but also the effect of our daily choices, in this case the impact of light pollution, providing education through appreciation for a natural wonder.
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