Japan

Project Overview

Discover Setouchi - Japan's Inland Sea

Japan is a truly timeless place, where ancient traditions are fused with modern life. Tourism in the country is booming, with the number of visitors reaching a record high in 2018. The increase of tourists is great for the economy, but does come with challenges. Rapid growth can put a strain on infrastructure and big cities can quickly become overcrowded. The Japan National Tourism Organisation has taken on this challenge by raising awareness of the activities and areas outside of the main cities and diversifying the destinations which tourists visit.

Following an incredibly successful previous campaign, Digital Visitor was tasked with increasing UK awareness and encouraging UK visitors during off peak seasons.

Solving the riddle

Our core objectives

1
Improve UK audience’s awareness and knowledge of Japan
2
Collect data from people interested in travelling to Japan
3
Drive visits to the JNTO website and campaign partner websites

Kind words

Annual arrivals to Japan have soared in recent years, making Japan the decade’s fastest growing major destination. Working with the team at Digital Visitor, we have focused on educating audiences on the lesser-known regions and activities available outside of the bigger cities and during off peak times. We are extremely pleased with the creativity and results of this campaign and the team at Digital Visitor have been a real pleasure to work with.

Matthew Joslin MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, JNTO

What we did

Our approach

A data capture campaign was activated to promote activities in and features of the Setouchi region of Japan. An interactive map was designed for the campaign by the Digital Visitor team. Users were required to explore the map and click various icons, sending them to web pages hosted by Japan National Tourism Organisation and Setouchi Tourism Authority featuring info on the corresponding regions. Within these web pages were clues that would help users answer questions back on the campaign mini site in order to enter the competition. Questions and clue pages refreshed every week to encourage repeat visits and increase engagement. The data capture campaign was supported by organic posts from JNTO and all prize partners.

Questions and clue pages refreshed every week to encourage repeat visits and increase engagement.

Social advertising promoting the data capture campaign ran across Facebook and Instagram, targeted to the core audience demographic – affluent UK-based singles and couples interested in travel, Japan, the East and the outdoors. Social advertising targeting the same audience ran to drive page likes on the ‘Travel to Japan from the UK’ Facebook page.

Over 24.3k people made an active decision to discover more about Japan and the promotion by clicking through from the ads. Over 3.2k of those who entered the competition double-opted in to receive marketing emails from JNTO, Setouchi Tourism Authority or Inside Japan Tours.

The results

Delivering on our word

Our campaign for Japan National Tourism Organisation surpassed expectations, providing a foundation for growth in 2019 and beyond. Our teams delivered: