Video inspires action
April 18, 2018
How do destinations get in on the action?
Make a plan for your videos
By now, you’ve likely realized that video marketing offers an extraordinary opportunity for destination marketers to reach large audiences and tell your stories visually. But are you taking advantage? If so, high-five! You’re making smart decisions to diversify your reach across platforms like YouTube and Facebook. If not, we’ve got some ideas that can help you turn your video assets into inspirational assets.
Working within a set marketing budget, destinations have difficult choices to make when it comes to which campaigns receive the most cash. It’s not always easy to decide where your attention should go, or which efforts are going to deliver the most payoff. Video marketing is quickly taking up its rightful share of the pie and it’s clear that this strategy is here to stay. Measurable ROI is imperative and can help you form better strategies as well as the content of your videos. With YouTube ads, you can tell in real-time if your targeted audience likes your content (with engagement metrics) and if it’s making an impact (with brand metrics)1. This all means that your campaign can be optimized quickly in order to get the most out of your efforts. Now that’s some serious bang for your buck.
What are consumers watching?
With YouTube’s popularity soaring past live TV, it’s no surprise that travelers are more likely to be inspired by your videos while they browse their favorite topics2. Videos bring awareness to a destination, delivering brand recognition to viewers. It has an incomparable ability to create emotion-driven decisions, and helps create favorability. Visitors want to experience the sights and sounds of your destination before they make their decisions. Are you sharing ideas and activities to drive engagement and curiosity? Travelers want to be excited, inspired, and enthused about where they plan to take their next trip—your videos can do exactly that.
Visitors want to experience the sights and sounds of your destination before they make their decisions.
Did we mention that video performs well across devices? In fact, video traffic now accounts for over 55% of total mobile data traffic3. Mobile-enabled video marketing helps you expand your reach because it’s user-friendly and viewer-focused, allowing you to reach the audience you want to target. Inspiration doesn’t have to only occur before a visitor arrives, mobile marketing efforts can reach travelers mid-adventure and continue to encourage further activities and engagement in your destination. Video for the win!
Cooperation just makes sense
Destination marketing organizations have the ability to create opportunities for partners to participate in cooperative efforts, making it easier and more affordable to engage in a video marketing campaign. Video ads can be co-branded to strengthen partner videos within the companion display ads that appear alongside your video. This brand familiarity is powerful, and partners will get in front of a bigger audience that they may have not reached otherwise. That’s some serious sponsorship value. In addition, visitors to the DMO’s website can be remarketed to with partner video ads, encouraging further interaction and guiding viewers closer to making their final travel plans.
Sources: 1 Google, 2 Adroit Digital, 3 Cisco
