Into the Black Forest
Caroline McTaggart (UWS)
Benedikt Mugrauer (HdM)
Olivier Olbrechts (AHS)
Emma Svensson (LiU)
Erik Westermark (LiU)
Marketing of tourism in the Black Forest for young people
The assignment was to market the Black Forest for a younger audience. Although the Black Forest is one of the most popular touristic spots in Germany, it is mostly elderly people who spend their holiday here. The cuckoo clocks, picturesque houses and young girls with a "Bollenhut" don't appeal much to a younger crowd of 30 and under.
So the team had to ask themselves what could draw in a new audience. They started doing research about all the possible activities in the Black Forest and also had the chance to visit the forest for themselves. Here they learned that there is actually a broad range of activities possible for people of all ages. Then they asked themselves why didn't more young people visit? From research on activities on the web and in tourism brochures, they found out that the communication wasn't updated enough. So they decided to start a new approach that could run next to the current one, only directed towards a different audience. But first they had to decide to what type of younger audience they would communicate to. For this they went through a lot of articles about different kind of tourists and compared this to the offerings of the Black Forest. They found the trailblazers a good target group, because if you can convince them, then they can spread the word to others. They even narrowed it down by making a persona called Felix, who is a trailblazer but also likes motorcycles, the movie "Into the wild" and many more. This way they could use a more direct marketing approach.
The general feeling of the campaign had to be a more dark and mysterious one, something that connects with the persona. The team created a campaign that was based on a more movie-release approach. They made some guerrilla style stickers and stencils that should be used in places the persona visits a lot, like gas stations for example. Next to that they made movie-style posters that should be used in the same places regular movie advertisement occurs. They even made a teaser-trailer that can be shared on social networks. All these products are meant to direct the attention of the target group towards the website. Here it is explained what the campaign is really about. The website also functions as a unique selling point because it promotes a few alternative routes for going Into The Black Forest tailored to the interests of the target group.
