HOW DO YOU TRANSFORM TOURISM DURING LOCKDOWN?

After decades of tourism industry growth, COVID-19 brought travel to a standstill. With Iceland’s economy heavily relying on tourism, M&C Saatchi Talk, with the support of European SERMO partners headspace pr and Essencius, had to quickly minimise revenue decline, positioning Iceland as the top travel destination when global travel re-opened. Focus markets included Germany and Denmark, so with strategic support and local perspective from headspace pr and Essencius we ensured “Let It Out” equally tapped into frustrations of locals still in quarantine, people free to travel but not ready to and those able and wanting to escape lockdown irritations.

Temporary speakers were installed in select remote locations for a limited time (to avoid annoyance) and a website was created to allow anyone globally to record their yells, to then see and hear them played across Iceland’s glaciers, diamond beaches and ice caves. After letting it out, we inspired them to visit Iceland once let out of lockdowns. We created layered angles and assets to ensure all markets could target relevant media for best ROI, focusing on broadcast, digital news, travel and celebrity media. We commissioned research to reveal markets’ consumer sentiment and why there was need to let out frustrations.

We partnered with a psychologist that resonated across markets, commenting on scream therapy, working with talent with strong media and social appeal (min. 750k followers) to secure earned coverage and raise awareness.  Local talents were secured based on expressed frustrations that they could now laugh -- or easily talk -- about (e.g. cancelled gigs, panic-buying toilet paper). Ideally, they had previously visited, or spoken positively about Iceland. Mid-micro influencers per market were key to drive awareness and engagement. Under our guidance, markets selected influencers based on how vocal they were handling lockdown frustrations, relevant travel / lifestyle interests, reach and engagement.