Social media is being used in all kinds of creative ways to market these days. One of the latest initiatives is by Tourism New Zealand and travel group Helloworld which has created the world’s first social media relay, through Instagram, in celebration of United Nations World Tourism Day.
The relay will begin as the sun rises in Samoa, a release says, as it’s the world’s westernmost country. The relay will then travel around the globe like a Mexican wave finishing at sunset in the Cook Islands 36 hours later.
New Zealand will feature early in the relay being the third country to come online.
Each of the 60 participating countries will create a bespoke travel itinerary showcasing the unique attractions of their destination and will engage an influencer who will experience the itinerary, photograph their adventures and share them on the platform, the release says.
Canterbury will be the area repping New Zealand, and coastal art and surf photographer Sean Scott from Australia will be shooting it.
Tourism New Zealand general manager Australia Tony Saunders says they are thrilled to be involved in a world first to mark World Tourism Day.
“With 30 stunning regions that stretch more than 1,600 kilometres over two islands, we were tasked with the extremely difficult decision of which New Zealand location to showcase for this world first,” he says.
“After much deliberation, Canterbury was selected based on its diversity, from oceans to alps and its resilience as the city bounces back after the earthquake. Expect to see spectacular scenery of the South Island including the sparkling blue lake Pukaki and towering Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, finishing off with an Instameet at sunset in Port Hills,” Saunders says.
Helloworld CEO Kim Portrate says she’s proud to be leading a movement that will create social media history. “There are approximately five million Australians checking into Instagram every month with 70 percent of those users active every day. The #helloworldrelay is a unique opportunity to inspire travellers and show them parts of the world they may have never seen before, in a way they have never experienced … “
Another cool use of Instagram for marketing we came across recently is this US campaign for Old Spice by Wieden+Kennedy. The agency created a comic-styled story through the platform where players got to choose their own alternate endings using the platform’s tagging function.
The ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ game rips off 50s sci-fi comic books and takes the user through some humorous scenarios (which are actually different Instagram accounts) featuring robots, aliens, poisonous lemonade as well as a number of dead ends.
