Inspired by Iceland

April 14, 2010, an Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted called. He played volcanic ash several kilometers into the atmosphere which led to the air travel disruption in northwest Europe for many weeks. Many people were angry and blamed Iceland for the inconvenience. This led to a major threat in tourism in Iceland, as the most profitable season is summer. Tourism is a major source of economic income from Iceland to people in the industry were not looking for a good tourist season. Something had to be done to show people worldwide that Iceland was still a great place to travel despite volcano eruption. The response was Iceland Inspired by Iceland campaign. The Icelandic advertising agency created a multilingual multi-channel strategy focused on Google Universal. Twitter and posts were another thing that made discussions about the country. The strategy was to attach Iceland to large brands such as CNN, John Lennon and Lonely Planet. In addition, the general search phrases such as travel destinations in Iceland and music festivals have also been fixed. According to Mr. Kristján Hauksson, founder of Nordic eMarketing, in an interview with TechNewsDaily he said "The door opened by the volcano eruption was huge compared to the brand and overall awareness of Iceland."


The new site, inspiredbyiceland.com, was published in June 2010. There, unique content has been written about Iceland in 7 languages. The main focus was on key stakeholders, such as journalists, travel agencies and the general awareness Iceland catch traveler. The site and its contents are more focused on the experience of Iceland. A new video has been created, called the Inspired by Iceland Video. In the video, two young women tell the viewer about where they are and they show a very enthusiastic way they did when they visited Iceland. About this video was Icelandic, nature, music, clothing and actors. The video was a great success and was played 2.7 million times on Vimeo, 150,000 in the first week. "I would like to invite you to come with me to make pancakes and my wife Dorrit in the presidential residence, Bessastadir," said the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson in the Inspired by Iceland tourist site. This event can achieve 11 November 2011, where he served pancakes with whipped cream and rhubarb jam for tourists in his presidential residence.

Images and video are very important part of the overall social strategy, mainly because the Icelandic nature is the first reason why people want to visit Iceland. Images of Iceland beautiful landscape was used during all stages of the campaign Inspired by Iceland. Coming Iceland is a great visual experience and travelers love to take photos and videos of beautiful images. One thing the creators have learned from their research is that people traveling to Iceland are more likely to recommend and tell your friends about the trip than most other destinations. The campaign has a large reception with information about the Inspired by Iceland was seen over a hundred million times through this multi-lingual multi-channel approach. The campaign was nominated for two awards at the ceremony European excellence. The gold goes to the country that generates more profits with the use of media in Europe. The campaign was so successful that the jury of 20 people decided to give him another prize, the Grand Prix. With his campaign, Iceland tourism industry ahead of large companies such as Volkswagen and Audi.

As you can see, the result of the campaign Inspired by Iceland was a huge success. Leveraging Google Universal and focusing on a multi-channel approach, they were able to maintain visibility for many very strong terms of the important research period. It was an essential part of an overall strategy of the brand, keeping Iceland top of mind when it arrived at the destination can travel for people. This concept is a good example and could easily be applied to other countries that have struggled with the decline in tourism or have been natural disasters such as Iceland. Venezuela is a country that has suffered in recent years with the crisis. They could learn a lot from the campaign Inspired by Iceland and begin to show people how beautiful the land is, despite its problems. This advertising campaign in social media was well organized and implemented successfully. Accordingly, Inspired by Iceland is one thing that most Icelanders are very proud to be part of, and we hope that tourists continue to visit our little island in the future.