The document summarizes India's digital marketing strategy to promote tourism. It discusses launching a revamped tourism website in 2002 and conducting online advertising campaigns. The campaigns increased website traffic and led to initiatives like e-commerce integration and booking tools to make the site a one-stop-shop for travel planning. Further website upgrades and additional campaigns kept traffic growing through innovative advertising units and content.

1. Marketing India Digital Medium

2. Communication Objective “ To project India as an unique opportunity for physical invigoration, mental rejuvenation, cultural enrichment and spiritual elevation along with other developments that make India a modern state with state of the art infrastructure”

3. Internet Strategy Revamped the then existing website (www.tourismofindia.com) in March 2002 to make it attractive, functional and resourceful to help a user plan his/her trip to India. Launched First Online campaign during March 2002 – April 2002 to reach out to discerning travelers by focusing on specific destinations and themes. Adopted eCRM initiatives to reinforce the brand image by sending Newsletters and mailers to the subscriber database.

4. Approach adopted to Plan Online Media International Travel Market Focus on popular and country specific online properties - travel sites, portals and search engines Horizontal properties important for reach, whereas travel properties form the most relevant genre Synchronize the media spends and creative routes as per the seasonality of arrival from these countries Domestic Market Media spends segregated based on Relevant innovations A mix of high performing ad units and reach maximizing ad units Focus on Innovations Interactive units, concepts, content plugins, emailers and contests to form an integral part of the promotion scheme for Domestic and International.

5. Online campaigns Case Study, Impact on website

6. Online Campaign ( March 2002 – April 2002 ) First ever Online campaign for Ministry of tourism during the period of March 2002 – April 2002 . Online campaign resulted in a Click through rate of 1.2% on Indian sites and 0.45% on International sites. More than 75 banners used for campaign. Tactical creative were used to attract maximum click-thru to the relaunched website. Approx. 55% Bonus impressions delivered . Total impressions delivered were 31Million as against a committed figure of 20million. Cost per unique visitor Rs9 (average of International + Indian)

7. Impact on Website The campaign resulted in more than 13 million hits to the website per month. Page views increased from 1,409 to 2,286,805 in less than 2 months. Visits increased from 245 to 10,131

8. Page views (March 2002 – April 2002)

9. User Sessions (March 2002 – April 2002) Reports from third party server

10. Some of the creatives used

11. Internet Strategy A robust Response mechanism was devised to create a dialogue with the users contactus@tourismofindia.com was made popular through online campaign and website. With success of first online campaign and response mechanism, this has been adopted as an ongoing strategy. Subsequently many more campaigns have been launched and website has been revamped to– www.incredibleindia.org.

12. Online campaign (December 2002 – March 2003) Over 100 different creative created for campaign across 12 themes. Innovations were planned in terms of Contests on portals to increased user interaction. Resulted in more 13 Million hits, close to 2 lac user sessions and 2.70 page views per month. Website HITS

13. Some of the Creatives

14. Impact of campaign on the website

15. Website Relaunched - www.incredibleindia.org The “New and Fresh” Incredible India website was designed to be a showcase of all good things in India- Colours, technology, vastness, diversity and depth. The site is a representative of modern India- The India with its roots firmly in place, yet forward looking and contemporary. Navigation - Design The Masthead changes with every section and actually turns out to be a particularly interactive facet, because it scrolls on mouse over! This makes every section have a fresh appeal, with perhaps the first 3-D masthead on an Indian travel site.

16. Website Content The site has the most varied content on India with respect to travel. Content has been segregated according to Themes, Facts and Interactivity. Neatly arranged themes cover such diverse aspects about a region as History, Geography, Religion, Best Places to visit, People and Lifestyle, among other aspects. The site retains links to vernacular content for Spanish, French and German language versions. A few extremely valuable features have been added on the site A virtual helpdesk with information on Embassies, Baggage, currencies and Customs rules, Visa and Permit info for all States along. Tool Kit section with currency, Festival calendar, maps, phone codes- make the site both interactive and informative. Section on Travel agents and tour operators Multimedia showcase

18. Online Campaign (18th August 2004 – 15th March 2005) A complete 360-degree approach. Innovative site captures, Road blocks and bigger size creatives. Mobile marketing DVD ad insert and digital brochure insert in ZDNet India’s Technology magazine. Direct marketing Incredible India post cards inserts along with tickets to all those who purchased railways ticket from Indian railways website.

19. Online Campaign (18th August 2004 – 15th March 2005) e-CRM Sending newsletters and specific direct mailers to the database and registered database of esteemed travel portals. Contest s and polls have been an indispensable part of the campaign. Goa contest was a big success with approx. 15,000 entries across Internet and sms. In addition to this, Content integration , Image/photo gallery and Destination specials were taken across portals to enhance the “Colours of India”!

20. Pop-Under on Home

21. Destination of the month- North East

22. Interactive Unit

23. Bigger size units 1.61% 89,479 5,564,314 CTR Clicks Impressions 0.72% 31,530 4,390,043 CTR Clicks Impressions

24. Innovative DHTML creative 3.51% 225,030 6,415,402 CTR Clicks Impressions

25. Road Block on msn

26. North East- Photogallery

27. SMS Contest Through Indiatimes- Goa Contest- Around 900 entries

28. CricInfo User Polls- Brought to you by Incredible India- On Home Page

29. Poll results Branding

30. Digit DVD Content Insertion

31. Yahoo Floating East

32. Google-Prime Visibility

33. Search Engine advertising

34. The Contest Microsite

35. LIVE Chat with Incredible Indians Rohit Bal Euphoria Shiamak Davar Amman & Ayaan Ali Bangash Shankar Mahadevan Sanjeev Kapoor Nita Mehta Sonu Nigam Kabir Bedi

37. Impact on website Page views increased to more than 25 million page views per month in April 05. Page views have increased by almost 4.5 times in past 5 months (Dec 04 to April 05). A 429% increase in page views.

38. Website Stickiness Increase in stickiness of the site could be seen Number of page views generated per visit. An increase in this signifies a positive image and stickiness. Time spent per page view Since the site is updated very frequently and has deep and rich content, the stickiness of the website has increased. 38.00 April 05 34.00 Mar-05 30.56 Feb-05 20.20 Jan-05 33.03 December 04 28.69 November 04 Page views per visit Months 8 April 05 10 Mar-05 12 Feb-05 5 Jan-05 7 December 8 November Time spent per visit (mins) Months

39. Visitors Sudden increase in Sept-Oct 04 was due to Online campaign and “Trip Planner” on the website to support the leads. Feb-March05 also saw the increase due to campaign. However, due to constant updating, there has been an increase in traffic on website even in April 05, despite no active online campaign.

40. Geographic locations April 2005

41. New Initiatives for e-Commerce facilitation

42. New Initiatives for e-Commerce facilitation Association with travel marts to provide online booking solutions for total travel and related services requirements. To provide access to a wide pool of resources for varied options to the end users by making the site a One stop shop for all travel requirements. To Extend reservation automation to various travel service providers (like taxi service providers for transfers & car hire; guest houses, hotels, heritage properties, etc… for accommodation services). One to one chat on the incredibleindia website

43. New Initiatives for e-Commerce facilitation Providing end to end packages on the website Hosting complete end to end packages on the website under the name of VISA Great Breaks A new website with similar look n feel to incredibleindia site to be built as an extension of the website to enable package booking online. Email tracking and Database marketing Objective is to add interactivity to the service by tracking responses and hand-holding them to plan a visit to India. Sending regular and relevant communication to the segregated database.

44. Thus.. Ensuring 24 X 7 X 365 availability. National access to pool of service providers in remote locations and International Accommodation booking. Access to a wide pool of resources for varied options, not just limited to 10, 20, 50 / 100 service providers. One stop shop for all travel requirements Reliable and Secured transactions over a reliable payment gateway. Easy Search and booking just at the click of a button.

45. Thank You