The 48 Hours in Denmark-concept was created to gain insight in to the habits of lead users in the field of digital tourism. By addressing them via their platforms of choice, and then by observing how they actually used them in a real life scenario, it became possible to develope an idea of what the future of an industry might look like.
Challenge
As a part of a large project with the Danish tourism operator Midtjysk Turisme we were tasked with uncovering what the future of innovative travel marketing might look like. While desk research and interviews can get you far, we felt we needed to speak to the actual travellers themselves. What were their habits, wishes and ideas for the future of travel, both online- and off?
Method
The netnographical approach dictates that the best way to learn about a user group is via the platforms they use themselves. In this case Facebook, Twitter, blogs / forums and Youtube. To incentivise the digital tourists to take part in the project we designed a contest.
Produce a Youtube video telling us about you travel habits, and we will reward the best one with 48 Hours in Denmark. When visiting Denmark we would speak with the “winner” and require them to use all the platforms they spoke of in their application extensively. Blogs, video uploads, pictures, reviews and so on all factored in to the equation, so that we could monitor how they actually used the platforms they spoke of. The winners would be chosen by the community.
The contest was seeded to relevant travel communities and Facebook pages, as well as news sites and technology & trend blogs. It garnered a great deal of interest from sites such as Springwise (http://springwise.com/tourism_travel/48hoursindenmark/), Chameleon Strategies (http://www.chameleonstrategies.com/2009/04/denmark-creating-buzz-with-social-media-contest.html), Advance (http://blog.advance.dk/?p=459) and the Lifestream Blog (http://lifestreamblog.com/win-a-trip-to-denmark-simply-by-using-lifestreaming-skills/).
Outcome
Once the video applications started to roll in, the site started to see good amounts of trafic and comments. It was clear from the start that some of the applicants were exceedingly well versed in the use of social media, as three main contenders pulled away from the field in regards to the amount of votes.
Instead of choosing one winner is was decided that these three would all be given a trip to Denmark. One group had understood the connection between the digital medium and the physical would particularly well, another used social media to perfection and finally one combined many aspects of the others with intimate knowledge of the travel industry as a whole.
The three groups visited Denmark at three different occasions. During their visits they each produced a site and copious amounts of content, which can be viewed via the links above. Through their use of technology it became possible to pass on solid knowledge about the possible route travel information might take to our client. Furthermore insight into the habits of people arriving in Denmark was gained, which was valuable for the overall project in progress.
The 48 Hours in Denmark-concept was created to gain insight in to the habits of lead users in the field of digital tourism. By addressing them via their platforms of choice, and then by observing how they actually used them in a real life scenario, it became possible to develope an idea of what the future of an industry might look like.
Challenge
As a part of a large project with the Danish tourism operator Midtjysk Turisme we were tasked with uncovering what the future of innovative travel marketing might look like. While desk research and interviews can get you far, we felt we needed to speak to the actual travellers themselves. What were their habits, wishes and ideas for the future of travel, both online- and off?
Method
The netnographical approach dictates that the best way to learn about a user group is via the platforms they use themselves. In this case Facebook, Twitter, blogs / forums and Youtube. To incentivise the digital tourists to take part in the project we designed a contest.
Produce a Youtube video telling us about you travel habits, and we will reward the best one with 48 Hours in Denmark. When visiting Denmark we would speak with the “winner” and require them to use all the platforms they spoke of in their application extensively. Blogs, video uploads, pictures, reviews and so on all factored in to the equation, so that we could monitor how they actually used the platforms they spoke of. The winners would be chosen by the community.
The contest was seeded to relevant travel communities and Facebook pages, as well as news sites and technology & trend blogs. It garnered a great deal of interest from sites such as Springwise, Huffington Post, Chameleon Strategies, Advance and the Lifestream Blog.
Outcome
Once the video applications started to roll in, the site started to see good amounts of trafic and comments. It was clear from the start that some of the applicants were exceedingly well versed in the use of social media, as three main contenders pulled away from the field in regards to the amount of votes.
Instead of choosing one winner is was decided that these three would all be given a trip to Denmark. One group had understood the connection between the digital medium and the physical would particularly well, another used social media to perfection and finally one combined many aspects of the others with intimate knowledge of the travel industry as a whole.
The three groups visited Denmark at three different occasions. During their visits they each produced a site and copious amounts of content, which can be viewed via the links above. Through their use of technology it became possible to pass on solid knowledge about the possible route travel information might take to our client. Furthermore insight into the habits of people arriving in Denmark was gained, which was valuable for the overall project in progress.
