Bournemouth Tourism focused on a viral marketing campaign, with their Bournemouth V California you tube video – the measurement and associated PR showed the need for careful planning, control and measurement of such activity in order to not miss any opportunity.

1. DIGITAL DESTINATIONS
Dr Philip Alford
Bournemouth University
www.digitalhub.co.uk
www.pinterest.com/digitaldest
www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub
ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk
@schooloftourism | @philipalford
#DDBU

2. Digital Destinations project is an ESRC funded research project,
delivered by Bournemouth University,
with an overarching aim to:
‘capture change in the adoption and use of digital technologies
and to develop a strong, competitive local tourism economy.
Through increased understanding and use of emerging digital
technologies, visitor economy businesses will be in a position to
increase their marketing and management effectiveness, and
develop new products and services that will provide an
enhanced experience for visitors to their destinations’

3. The businesses benefited from 4 workshops which covered:
 Background to on line marketing
 Individual Business objectives
 Developing the strategy
 Measuring impact
 Reporting outcomes via case studies
All course material can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub
All business outcomes and blogs can be found at http://www.budigitalhub.co.uk/

4. The following presentation is the case study provided by Bournemouth
Tourism
Bournemouth Tourism focused on a viral marketing campaign, with their
Bournemouth V California you tube video – the measurement and associated PR
showed the need for careful planning, control and measurement of such activity in
order to not miss any opportunity.

5. Bournemouth vs. California
A Viral Campaign

6. Watch the video by clicking here

7. Summary
Bournemouth vs. California is a six month viral
campaign, which has been running from February
2013 and will continue until the end of August
2013. Although the campaign is ongoing we can
already see extremely positive results with over
97,500 views on You Tube. Hits to
Bournemouth.co.uk have increased by over one
million from the same period in February 2012 and
the ‘likes’ to the Bournemouth Beach Facebook
page have increased by over 3,000 to 13,927 since
February 2012.

8. Where are we now?
• 97,533 views on You Tube
• National media coverage from the following
publications:
 BBC Radio 5 Live
 The Daily Mail Online
 The Independent Online
 The Guardian Online
 The Sun Online
 ITV.com
 Yahoo News Online
 Local Radio Stations and TV
 Plus over 40 global media websites
• National TV coverage – Channel 5 News and

9. Where we want to be...
Aims
• To reach 100,000 hits on You Tube
• To release an ‘Out Takes’ video
• For people to have a larger awareness of
Bournemouth as a tourist destination

10. Facebook
A Facebook campaign has been created in conjunction with
Bournemouth vs. California, allowing viewers to upload
images of Bournemouth ‘looking like’ or ‘better than’
California for the chance to win a ‘Viral Video’ Experience’:
spa day, hotel stay, game of golf, surfing lesson, high tea,
tickets to a show, beach hut for a day, cycle ride etc. - allowing
the winner to experience some of Bournemouth’s best assets.

11. Strategy
The strategy for the Social Media Campaign was primarily an
awareness campaign of Bournemouth as a tourist
destination, incorporating the resorts USP’s and promoting
the destination to a national market. The campaign has a 6
month run (Feb – Aug 2013) covering our ‘out of season’
months as well as ‘high season’, to encourage people to
visit Bournemouth and in turn bring revenue to the local
economy.

12. What have we learnt?
• How rapidly viral campaigns spread
• That the personalities included were
the biggest attraction for the media
• That viral videos often have to include a
humorous element to be successful.

13. The biggest challenge
The biggest challenge has been sustaining interest in the video.
Viral videos are very much a thing of the moment so
maintaining interest can be hard. We have advertised on a
selection of websites including Facebook and You Tube and
are also inviting bloggers to Bournemouth on press trips
based around the video theme to try and keep the
momentum going.

14. Would we do it again?
YES!
The Viral Video has been a great success for
Bournemouth Tourism and we would definitely
do another one.
Social media provides a great base to create fun
and informal relationships with the public,
which is very fitting for the tourism industry.
Go to bournemouth.co.uk for more information.

15. For more information on DIGITAL DESTINATIONS contact:
Dr Philip Alford, Bournemouth University
ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk
@schooloftourism | @philipalford
#DDBU