IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Spring Break

  • Spring Break Travel, Iceland, and Authentic Advertising

    Spring Break Travel, Iceland, and Authentic Advertising

    March begins the season of spring break for college students and faculty. It’s a necessary period to disconnect, reflect, and have some fun in the midst of midterms and difficult coursework, jobs, or internships.

    But just because we might be escaping our day-to-day lives for a week doesn’t mean we escape the myriad ways that advertising and integrated marketing communication impacts us and our decisions. One huge way IMC impacts us: how do we decide where to go?

    Travel agents, tourism bureaus, hotels, airlines, and other stakeholders create vibrant campaigns. Few have had to deal with a crisis as large as a volcanic eruption.

    Inspired by Iceland

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    Eyjafjallajökull erupting. Via adventures.is

    In 2010, Eyjafjallajökull (an Icelandic volcano) erupted and caused historic disruptions, including ash fall that shut down flights across Europe for almost a week.

    Tourism to Iceland fell by 30%. Inspired by Iceland was a campaign that involved the whole country. The president of the country at the time, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, stopped the entire country in its tracks (schools, workplaces and more) to ask for citizens to submit positive stories–which they did.

    The campaign chronicled its success in this video:

    The huge catalogue of positive Iceland experiences included celebrity testimonials. Webcams provided live footage of some of the most tourist-attracting natural wonders. The results of the campaign included more than £137 million in extra tourism revenue and more than 22 million stories shared.

    That last part is pretty amazing, because Iceland’s population is fewer than 350,000 people.

    The Brooklyn Brothers, the campaign’s creators, shared a case study on their website with more details.

    What Other Travel Experiences Can Take from Inspired By Iceland

    The award-winning campaign was effective because the agency running it knew its target audience: socially conscious millennials wary of traditional advertising ploys. The Brooklyn Brothers successfully gathered authenticity and storytelling.

    What would be more likely to get you to travel to a destination: a generic, high-production-value slideshow of landscapes with a peppy but robotic disembodied narrator telling you to Visit XYZ? Or a series of pictures of black sand beaches and a story from Olaf, a real Icelander, telling you about his afternoon on Iceland’s south coast? What is more authentic–a curated video or a live webcam broadcast?

    If you picked the second answer for any of those, you’re part of the target audience for Inspired by Iceland.

    Authenticity in marketing is now more important than ever, Business.com writes. That’s counterintuitive for some brands, which strive to carefully curate a perfect facade. Consumers’ desire for authenticity also makes it difficult for brands that lack a clear contribution to “the greater good”–without that corporate social responsibility, authenticity just means admitting that a brand wants a profit.

    The travel and tourism industry has always been about selling experiences, not goods. The next time you start googling destinations, consider what experiences you’re being sold–and whether they’re true-to-life or inauthentic ones.

    –Nikki Kroushl

  • Spring Break Destinations

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    Are you looking for some peace and quiet this coming spring break?  Here are ten places you may want to avoid. These destinations have been named the ten most popular college spring break spots! This can mean loud noise and hundreds of 20 year olds taking the week off from college. You can read more about these spring break hotspots at http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/10-best-spring-break-party-destinations/story?id=23010485.

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    1. Panama City
    2. Cancun
    3. Dominican Republic
    4. Las Vegas
    5. Jamaica
    6. Miami
    7. A Cruise
    8. Bahamas
    9. South Padre Island
    10. Puerto Rico

    Traveling anywhere on Spring Break can be hectic and exhausting, but here are a few steps to keep your trip fun and easy!

    Downloading your airline’s App is a great start. This will give you automatic and fast updates on your flight departure and arrival.delta.png

    Keeping large amounts of cash is unsafe no matter where you are, but make sure to be extra careful during spring break. ATMs are everywhere and always notify the bank when leaving the country!

    Most importantly, if you are leaving the country, always have a backup form of identification.

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    Have fun and enjoy your Spring Break!

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    Where are you going on Spring Break? Comment below!

    -Caitlin R, Megan S, Erin F, & Sarah G

  • Students Help Students Travel

    Ready to experience the world with exclusive travel discounts and rewards without breaking your college fund? Well we found just the website to make this process and your travels go much smoother. StudentUniverse is a technology company that offers these incentives and many more through their website. The best part? Membership is free! StudentUniverse is the leading student travel agency with almost one-third of all U.S. college students visiting the site every year. The website and blog offered by this company are operated by college students themselves. This team of students creates and spreads the latest trends so you know the destinations chosen are the “hottest” vacation spots this year.

    This travel agency also coordinates campaigns to engage students with brands and destinations, gaining their attention and swaying purchase decisions. StudentUniverse sells exclusive airfares from over 60 airline partners as well as sale rates on hotels and tours all throughout the world. The company also writes a blog, likewise conducted by students, which discuss the latest and greatest deals. They offer apps that you can download that release discounts on hotels, tours and more. The blog posts also offer information and tips about the youth travel market and how this industry is growing. Airline deals are also displayed in the blog along with the benefits for international students. StudetUniverse also gives away free round trip flights to a maximum number of students and scholarships to study abroad.

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    StudentUniverse recently introduced WeHostels, which is a new application for any smart phone that allows users to book hotels or hostels last-minute all over the world. It also features over 200,000 properties listed within the app. The target audience of this app is for students and young budget-conscious travelers between the ages of 18 and 28. WeHostels is currently  one of the most downloaded apps across the globe. It has been called one of the “100 Brilliant Companies of the Year” by Entrepreneur Magazine.

    One of the main components of WeHostel’s said brilliance is the emotional appeal of its campaign. Their campaign focuses on the destinations that people would like to travel to before death. This idea heavily utilizes pathos and pulls as the heart-strings of the target audience. WeHostels encourages people to deeply think about where they would love to travel most to before they die by using the hashtag “beforeidie” on Twitter. In turn of promoting the app via hashtag usage, WeHostels has made the promise to send a few lucky travelers on their dream bucket list journey. This is a prize that is sure to be coveted by inspired young travelers.

    In addition to promoting #beforeidie on Twitter, WeHostel has also created a video to display their mission of empowering young travelers. The video shows different individuals on the street saying where exactly in the world they would like to go before they die. Once again, pathos is strategically incorporated into this advertisement by providing young dreamers with a sense of empowerment.  In the end of the short video, WeHostels encourages audience members to go to their website to take the next step in making their dreams come true.

    The promotions and ideas that StudentUniverse provide are endless and the information is very beneficial for the average college student. StudentUniverse’s mission states, “It’s about getting the most out of your time in school. We believe in the positive effects that travel experiences can have on a person’s character and that having those experiences early on in life is critical in personal development”. They are a dedicated company who value the experience to travel and attempt to make the process a little easier. The company even offers a 24/7 customer support line for any comments, questions, or concerns at your convenience! Do you think that their use of pathos was effective in the overall advertisement of the app?

    -Briana McWhirter, Hannah Turner, Emily Foulke

  • PepsiCo Kickstart’s Spring Break 2014

    At the start of every year, the Collegiate Marketing Group publishes a Spring Break Guide for college students across the nation. The guide was first published in 1992 providing travel tips, destination news and information on everything about Spring Break.

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    The Collegiate Marketing Group specializes in the youth market and basically owns all territory related to Spring Break marketing. Their Spring Break Guide reaches an estimated one million students including the print and web publication as well as the students on social media.

    This year, Pepsi’s new Mountain Dew energy drink, Kickstart, is the featured annual sponsor, replacing Coca-Cola. The shift in sponsor seems to be due to PepsiCo’s efforts in supporting the Mountain Dew brand.

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    Kickstart was introduced in February 2013, and sales surged to more than 100 million in the first 6 months. PepsiCo is planning on supporting Kickstart even more in year two. Kickstart was given a 35% media spending boost compared to its first year on the market.

     

     

     

    This 35% can already be seen through the increased spring break advertising PepsiCo has been sponsoring. There are a number of things that PepsiCo reveals about themselves by choosing to spend their marketing budget on college spring break guides.  The first is that it identifies PepsiCo’s target audience for this campaign. A second thing is they are trying to associate this drink and its brand with the spring break scene (party, lights, sun, fun, etc).

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    While these 2 things stand out, there are many other things to examine in this campaign.  While you are on spring break, will you notice Kickstart and give it a try? We’ll see how PepsiCo and Kickstart do with their promotional campaign.

    – Rachel Gracy & Greg Rothman

  • “Checking In” to Spring Break

    Happy Spring Break! Many students have spent the last couple months (or longer) trying to figure out where their Spring Break time is best spent. If you’re like me, this preparation may have involved a thorough internet search to find the perfect hotel for your week off. An increasing number of hotel chains have discovered the perks of social media use and are developing ways to satisfy the needs and wants of their customers on an increasingly personal level.

    Social media sites such as Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook Places, allow a user to “check in” or log their current location. While some companies may be skeptical about the relevance of such tools to the business that they do, the hotel industry has discovered that these services create a greater feeling of inclusion and personalization to their guests. Now hotels can invite guests to “check in” both literally and virtually, completely committing to their stay. Another added benefit of location-based check-in tools is the ability to track and incentivize a guest’s stay. Hotels participating in incentive programs for social media have been known to use a variety of rewards to reach out to their social media circle; examples include anything from a discounted meal in the hotel restaurant to late checkout times for the final night of your stay. Some hotels have gone so far as to collaborate with airlines or credit card companies to create an unofficial “rewards program”; offering discounts and frequent flier miles for using your American Express card or staying at the Hilton.

    Of course with programs such as these, there can (and will) arise questions of security and privacy. Many savvy social media users are hesitant to place their exact location online. The flip side of this is that many users don’t want the world to know where they are NOT (for instance at home…protecting their belongings). While safety and security concerns are understandable, potential thieves and “bad guys” are not the only party with a vested interest in your location and personal information. Some of the aforementioned hotels have begun tracking mentions of their brand to create a more customized experience. For instance, say you book a night at a Marriott and tweet about how excited you are to stay there for your anniversary. With the use of these tools it’s not unlikely that you will open the door to find a chilled bottle of Champagne with a note from the staff wishing you a “Happy Anniversary”. Or, on a creepier note, a woman on the local radio the other day described checking into a hotel to find a wrapped dog bone and a note saying “Snickers misses you”, a response to her Facebook status the day before where she stated that she “ hate(s) to leave Snickers (her dog) at home when she goes on vacation”… To me, this was a little bit too personalized.

    As is typical with this type of marketing, it is necessary to find a happy medium between discovering a guest’s needs and invading their privacy. How far is too far and is there such thing as too personal? While this may not be a topic that concerns you too much while lounging on the beach in Florida or soaking up the culture in a foreign country, it’s important to keep in mind that while logging your location, you may be signing up for more than you recognize. So what do you think? Will you be
    “checking in” before you checkout this Spring Break?

    – Lauren Habig

  • Where to go, Where to go.

    I’d like to tell you a story about “My Friend”. My friend is a senior enrolled at UNC-Wilmington, and though he is very low on funds, he really wanted to enjoy his final spring break. After some consideration, he decided to make the short drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with his girlfriend where they could live it up like true college students. After my friend returned from his 4 day trip he took a few moments to relive his getaway and came to an abrupt realization. When he was in Myrtle Beach, his schedule consisted of very few things that couldn’t have been done right here in Wilmington. He got up at the break of noon, spent the afternoons lounging on the beach, the evenings relaxing at the local eatery and the nights chilling at the local pub. So if all of these things could have been accomplished in Wilmington, why didn’t my friend just stay in Wilmington? More importantly, why don’t other college students from all around flock to Wilmington to celebrate their time off?

    After some consideration and a little observation, I think I have discovered the answers to these questions: college students don’t come party in Wilmington because Wilmington doesn’t want them to come party here. Wilmington, and more specifically Wrightsville Beach, consists of well-developed (expensive) beach houses and family friendly entertainment offerings. If flocks of college students flocked here every spring then Wilmington could potentially become a less desirable location to bring your family or spend your retirement. It almost comes to a point where a city that is blessed with the kinds of attributes that make it a destination must choose what segment of the population they want to be a destination for. Though the marketing of geographic locations is often not as aggressive as that of traditional businesses, it can be an important decision in the life of a city.

  • Make this Spring Break about Helping Others!

     

     Instead of partying in Panama City or Cancun and ultimately only hurting your liver, make this spring break or next years about helping others by becoming a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

    More than 10,000 students in 2011 are volunteering their time for spring break. The numbers are rising from 2006 when 1,531 students volunteered to spend spring break to help rebuild the storm-torn US Gulf Coast.

    According to Desiree Adaway, the Habitat for Humanity senior director of Volunteer mobilization said, “Students have a number of options to consider for their school spring break, and we are so grateful for their interest in volunteering their time with Habitat,” “Their efforts will help provide safe, decent and affordable housing for so many families in need.” Habitat for Humanity is trying to market now towards college students on their spring breaks.

    Not only are these spring breakers helping others but they are also “building” social capital. Habitat for Humanity is a great way to meet others and spend time with friends who enjoy doing the same things as you. This opportunity gives you a chance to travel across the country to different places and learn of other cultures. From February to June Collegiate Challenge participants will volunteer in 200 Habitat locations and donate 1.3 million to the Habitat affiliates they visit.

    For more information on becoming a volunteer.  www.habitat.org/volunteers.

     -Lindsey Baggett, Drew Mayer, Micaela Fouhy, Will Cosden, Brianna Golden