This social media campaign from Cape Town Tourism invited users to take a virtual tour of the South African city, getting 350,000 highly engaged users and a 118% rise in bookings in the process. As it was impossible to send everyone to Cape Town, Ogilvy decided to send their Facebook profiles instead. During the four-month-long campaign 8,212 people played the Facebook game. Players of the game came from South Africa, the UK, USA, India, and Germany - by order of participants.
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Brand: Cape Town Tourism | Sector: Travel, Tourism | Country: South Africa | Objective: Build brand engagement, drive sales | Format: Social Media, Video Facebook, YouTube | Agency/ Partner: Ogily
Back in September 2012, Cape Town Tourism briefed Ogily to come up with an online campaign that also promotes the unexpected side of Cape Town. All the small communities, never-heard of places and unearthed gems that cannot be found on Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, Expedia, or even Google.
As it was impossible to send everyone to Cape Town, Ogilvy decided to send their Facebook profiles instead. They got a virtual, tailor-made Cape Town holiday that exposed them to all the unexpected places, and finally, a few lucky winners got to experience their Facebook profileâs holiday for themselves.
During the four-month-long campaign 8,212 people played the Facebook game. Players of the game came from South Africa, the UK, USA, India, and Germany - by order of participants.
All players of the Facebook game will now be included on Cape Town Tourism’s visitor database and will be given first opportunity to participate in new campaigns, while receiving regular updates about new developments and special deals in Cape Town.
Thousands of people played the interactive Facebook game MyCapeTownHoliday.com after it was launched by Cape Town Tourism in September 2012 to promote the destination. The first prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to Cape Town, courtesy of Cape Town Tourism and Virgin Atlantic Airways, with a second prize week-long holiday for a domestic traveler, and a third prize of long-haul flights on Virgin Atlantic Airways. On December 31, 2012 the competition closed and the lucky winners of a real Cape Town experience were announced on Friday, January 25, 2013.
Commenting on the campaign, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, said: “The MyCapeTownHoliday.com Facebook game has been an exciting project for us and one which demonstrates the incredible power of sharing on social media. Gaming is a massive global trend right now that almost goes beyond marketing and into a creative play space for a brand. Many of the major tourism destination marketing organizations globally have also begun incorporating gamification into their strategies, too. We researched this field extensively before embarking on our campaign, and we have learnt a lot in the process.”
Although the competition is closed, social media mavens can still send their Facebook profiles to test-drive a Cape Town holiday by visitingMyCapeTownHoliday.com.
Results
Overall the campaign generated:
350,000 engaged users
580,000 page impressions
41,000 monthly visits
R350,000 (£26,076) worth of PR
Bookings to Cape Town rose 118%
