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Digital PR: The Internet and Social Media

Group Campaign Report

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Content Page Number List of Illustrations 4

Situation 5

Objective 6

Audience 8

Strategy 9

Tactics 17

Timings & Implications 26

Budget 27

Campaign Measurement & Evaluation 28

List of References 29

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1. List of Illustrations Fig. 1 – Quarter one visitor results

Fig. 2 – Quarter two visitor results

Fig. 3 – Quarter three visitor results

Fig. 4 – Quarter four visitor results

Fig. 5 – Affluent older couple

Fig. 6 – Family

Fig. 7 – International tourist

Fig. 8 – Sports Enthusiasts

Fig. 9 – Students

Fig. 10 – Social media illustration

Fig. 11- Demonstrates the current Isle of Wight Facebook page

Fig. 12- Tumblr dashboard

Fig. 13- Mock Twitter account

Fig. 14- YouTube

Fig. 15- WordPress

Fig. 16- Demonstration Disqus page

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2. Situation Background

The client requires a proposed digital communications strategy that the Isle

of Wight council can implement over the year 2012. The current situation on

the Isle of Wight in terms of tourism is fairly similar to that of previous

years.

Peak season covers the summer period, and then the rest of the year

sees a decline in the number of people visiting the island. The island

has not seen a year peak that of Summer 2003. The lowest tourist

numbers are in the first quarter of each year, where domestic and

leisure visits decrease.

Campaign

The brief is for a one-year retainer campaign with a budget of £50,000.

Aim

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness online of the island as a

summer holiday and weekend break destination, ultimately driving traffic to

www.islandbreaks.co.uk

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3. Objectives The objective of this campaign is to implement an online campaign in order

to increase the number of visitors who book their trips through

islandbreaks.co.uk. Specifically targeting key audiences, which are profiled

through research conducted into current island visitor data and calendar

events. The campaign aims to draw traffic to the island throughout the

duration of the year.

Specifically the contents of our campaign will revolve around a variety of

appropriate online resources – websites and social media such as Facebook,

Twitter, Tumblr, video websites, online newspapers and blogs. These

channels act as a commenting platform, to help popularise The Isle of Wight

over the period of year 2012. Each digital platform will be used to reach out

to a selected target audience by distributing information, photos and videos

of the island, promoting competitions, gathering users' feedback,

participating in conversations about tourism and related activities. Using a

calendar corresponding to the one of Isle of Wight's events, usage of each

platform will be carefully monitored, with focus being placed on specific

channels according to the happenings on the Isle. Carefully chosen

partnerships assisting in attracting people's attention, combined with the

use of the above-mentioned online channels, web traffic will ultimately be

driven to www.islandbreaks.co.uk as per the client's request.

a. Specific

To increase the amount of traffic to islandbreaks.co.uk via a digital

media communication strategy implemented over the course of one

year.

b. Measurable

The success of the campaign can be measured through the social

channels deemed appropriate for the audiences.

c. Achievable

The success of the campaign will be achieved on a budget of £50,000

across one year.

d. Realistic

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There are many online resources available at no additional cost.

e. Time

This year long campaign will involve

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4. Audience

4.1. Profiling the audience

This stage of the report focuses on the research, development and

construction of an audience core, relevant to the product and brand.

Important to the success of the campaign, is establishing a diverse group of

audiences, that build on and strengthen the existing markets, whilst also

exploring the option of introducing new and potential audience groups to

contribute in adding value to the campaign and ultimately the brand,

driving more traffic to www.islandbreaks.co.uk as outlined in the brief.

4.2. Researching the market

The graphs below show the trends within the existing market of

consumers/visitors in terms of the average number of visits to the island

each week compared to previous years for the four quarters of the calendar

year. These graphs, collected from the Isle of Wight Council website, show a

steady number of visitors to the island across the year in correlation with

major events and key dates on the island. The graphs also indicate the

opportunities for growth and expansion, in terms of strengthening existing

markets and developing new ones.

Fig. 2. Quarter two results of average number of visitors to the island per week 2010 compared to previous years.

Fig.1. Quarter one results of average number of visitors to the island per week 2010 compared to previous years.

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Fig. 4 Quarter four results of average number of visitors to the island per week 2010 compared to previous years.

Fig.3. Peak season/Quarter three results of average number of visitors to the island per week 2010 compared to previous years.

Fig. 4. Quarter four results of average number of visitors to the island per week 2010 compared to previous years.

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3.3 Defining the audience

Group 1 Affluent older couples

Age: Range from 40+

Occupation(s): Executives or retired

Interests: Arts, culture, history, social events, travelling

Why the Isle of Wight?: The island offers a number activities that would

interest this audience, things such as ‘Cowes week’ in August or beer and

wine festivals, this category has a wide disposable income and therefore fall

into the top three of the audience groups, because they also have a wide

amount of time to spare, and are compliant with loyal brand attitudes.

Group 2 Families

Age: Parents middle aged with children up to the age of around 14/15

Occupation: Stay at home mum/Father who works

Interests: Family activities, holiday breaks during time off school, weekend

short breaks

Why the Isle of Wight?: The isle of Wight offers a number of attractions to

families , such as things for the kids, like Halloween specials ‘Wizard Week’

or ‘The Victorian Christmas’ as well as more family orientated events like

Fig. 6 Family on beach

Fig. 5 Affluent older couple

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the New Year’s ‘Hangover Special’ or ‘Carnivals’.

Group 3 International Market (tourists)

Age: Any age range

Occupation: Tourists to the UK

Interests: Travelling, sightseeing, events and local attractions

Why the Isle of Wight?: Fully exploiting the Olympic games, a number of

foreign visitors will be in the UK over the summer months of 2012, with

events like ‘Heritage open days’ as well as sporting 'events like ‘Walk the

Wight’ ‘The Wight Challenge’ and ‘Island Games’ offering something for this

audience group, to complement their travel and visit to the UK.

Group 4 Sports Enthusiasts

Age: 20-50

Occupation: City workers, middle class

Interests: Sightseeing, keeping fit, sports related, camping

Fig. 8 Sports enthusiasts cycling

Fig. 7 International tourist

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Why the Isle of Wight?: With a diverse amount of sporting events on the

island, and the perfect landscape for many endurance, and recreational

sports, the island is already world famous for numerous events sport related

over the year.

Group 5 Students

Age: 16-25

Occupation: Students

Interests: Music, films, pop culture, gigs, socialising, camping

Why the Isle of Wight?: Building on the success of ‘The isle of Wight

Festival’ and ‘Bestival’ there is a strong market here, that return year in

year out, that as of yet haven’t been fully exposed to the other

opportunities and attractions on the island.

3.4. Reaching the audience Having defined the audience, the next relevant step is profiling their online

activity and making sure, that they are accessible to the campaign, and will

be able to use content generated by the social media outlets we provide. As

important in the content generated through the sites, in terms of being

relevant to different groups developed later in the report. Below is an

illustration produced in September 2011, that shows the variation of

different groups online, accessing relevant media.

Fig. 9 Students at festival

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Fig.10. Illustration of social media technologies and exactly which audiences are active members of

different channels

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5. Strategy This campaign is going to use a variety of appropriate online resources –

websites and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, video

websites, online newspapers and blogs and a commenting platform, to help

popularize The Isle of Wight over the period of year 2012. Each digital

platform will be used to reach out to a selected target audience by

distributing information, photos and videos of the island, holding contests,

gathering users' feedback, participating in conversations about tourism and

related activities. Using a calendar corresponding to the one of Isle of

Wight's events, usage of each platform will be carefully monitored, with

focus being placed on specific ones according to the happenings on the Isle.

Carefully chosen partnerships assisting in attracting people's attention,

combined with the use of the previously described online channels, web

traffic will ultimately be driven to www.islandbreaks.co.uk as per the

client's request.

5.1. Tumblr

Tumblr is a website that allows people to post text, photos links, music, and

videos, from a browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever someone happen

to be. (Tumblr, 2011)

Tumblr is different from the famous social media (Facebook, Twitter or

LinkedIn) as it is a ‘cross between social networking and blogging’ (Courtney

Burton, 29 November 2011). Moreover, it is really simple to use: ‘Anytime a

user sees something interesting online, they can click a quick “Share on

Tumblr” bookmark that then tumbles the snippet directly.’ (Crunchbase,

2011). Furthermore, it is an important social media to acknowledge as ‘87%

of its users are regulars, it’s becoming a little virtual, worldwide, society’

with ‘over 38,000 posts per minutes’. (Courtney Burton, 29 November 2011).

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The audience addressed via this channel are mainly young people as

half of the users are students: ‘56% of the service’s 25.2 million

monthly visitors are under 34’ (Juliana Allen, 2011).

5.2. Press Releases

Press Releases will be sent to these audiences: families, people who do

sport or like it, and students. To keep those particular audiences aware of

what is going on the Isle of Wight.

5.3. Facebook

Facebook is the social media site used by a variety of different audiences.

This social channel website ‘connects friends, family, and business

associates’ (Wisegeek, 2011). Facebook is an effective way of engaging with

key audiences and offers many opportunities to promote aspects of our

campaign.

Affluent families

Couples

Students

People with an interest in sports

As ‘there are 800 million active users’ and an estimated 200 million people

logging on to Facebook everyday day, this is a huge platform to

communicate from. (Facebook, 2011)

Currently there is already a Facebook page named ‘The Isle of Wight’ (Fig

1). There is a significant amount of current ‘likes’ already established on

the current page. Therefore it would take a considerable amount of time to

create an entirely new page in aid of this campaign. That is why, the

existing page will be used by making improvements.

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Fig 1: Demonstration of current Isle of Wight Facebook page

How will it be enhanced?

Regular updates and news detailing different events both that have

been and are yet to come.

Image and video uploads reflecting visitor’s experiences. All of which

are updated within a labelled photo album.

To create a special page for each event happening on the island in

order to persuade the audience to visit.

The website link will be detailed throughout the page.

Daily updated status’ in order to appear on individuals news feeds.

For example: ‘Sunshine all weekend! Who’s coming to visit the island?

For more in formation go on http://www.islandbreaks.co.uk/’ or

‘Don’t forget to reserve your weekend for the carnival. For more in

formation go on http://www.islandbreaks.co.uk/’.

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5.4. Tumblr

The attention of the audience will be engaged by posting what’s happening

on the island. There will be posts updated via the ‘Dashboard’ (Figure 2):

People unique experiences on the island (using the ‘Text’ tool).

Pictures of events and images of the island in general will be

uploaded.

Direct feedback from people who went on the island (using the

‘Quote’ tool). For example: ‘What an amazing and surprising island!’

The link ‘http://www.islandbreaks.co.uk/’ will be added with every

post.

Chat for people who have questions or want some advice.

Videos: Sporting events, a montage of family holidays, music festivals

etc.

Fig 2: Dashboard (30/11/11 16:13)

5.5. Press Releases

Press releases will be sent at least two to three times a month. In

particular, the online magazines and newspapers listed below are the most

likely sites visited by the different audiences.

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Families:

http://www.independent.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/

http://www.familiesonline.co.uk

www.holidayswithkids.com,

http://www.myfamilymagazine.co.uk,

http://www.familyholidayandleisure.com/

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/

http://www.families-for-children.co.uk/

http://familyfriendlysites.com/

Sport:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport

http://www.sportawayholidays.com/,

http://www.sportsnetholidays.com

http://www.skysports.com/

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/sports-channel.htm

http://www.mysportsite.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/

Student:

http://www.independent.co.uk/

http://www.thenationalstudent.com/

http://www.livejournal.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.last.fm/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk/

http://www.veoh.com/ (forum)

http://www.student365.co.uk/

http://www.skysports.com/

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http://www.studentuk.com/

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/

http://www.younilife.com/

5.6. Partnerships

After understanding the key audiences targeted by our campaign and a

number of social channels that effectively communicate with those groups a

number of partnerships have been developed in order to appeal specifically

to our audiences.

Nectar card customers: A partnership aimed at the affluent older

couples and families. Nectar points are collectable throughout the

year and will therefore run the full length of the campaign.

Groupon: This partnership is effectively directed at students and

families. The groupon voucher site offers exclusive discounts on

activities and trips of all kinds taking place on the island.

Blacks: The Blacks/Millets campaign is directly aimed at the sports

enthusiasts, students and festival goers who may benefit from the

products available in this outdoor equipment store.

Oyster Card customers: The reasons for choosing Oyster as the final

partnership is to promote the island to the international audience,

visiting over the course of the Olympic Games.

5.7. Promotions

Using promotions throughout the campaign year will encourage

activity across all social channels. Promotions will run in conjunction

with events and offers associated with the island and will also

promote our partnerships. Ultimately the promotions will drive traffic

to islandbreaks.co.uk.

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6. Tactics

6.1. Partnerships

Using the partnerships to implement tactic will allows for each audience to

benefit from the range of discounts and offers via various methods. The

partnerships will be supporting the campaign throughout the year and

suitably coinciding with events taking place on the island.

Nectar Card (Double club card points): ‘Swapping one Isle for

another’. This partnership aims to offer an opportunity to use Nectar

points. This partnership aims to offer a variety of the audiences an

opportunity to use their Nectar points in exchange for discounts and

offers exchangeable through islandbreaks.co.uk. Effectively this

partnership will run throughout the duration of the campaign.

Islandbreaks.co.uk will benefit from the publicity on the Nectar

website and by incorporating the Nectar logo in the islandbreaks.com

homepage visitors are reminded that their points equal days out on

the island. Effectively this partnership will run throughout the

duration of the campaign. Islandbreaks.co.uk will benefit from the

publicity on the Nectar website and by incorporating the Nectar logo

into the islandbreaks.co.uk homepage visitors are reminded that their

points equal days out on the island. This partnership will run

throughout the campaign year.

Groupon: Once a month islandbreaks.co.uk offer a discount on

activities or weekends away. Groupon users can purchase the offer

and are directed to the island breaks website in order to confirm

their booking and select the dates in which they want to visit.

Blacks (Millets): In conjunction with the events being held on the

island regarding festivals, camping or walking. Customers at Blacks

are offered a 20% discount on relevant outdoor equipment and

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clothing. During selected times of the year when booking activities

through island Breaks.

Oyster card customers ‘Travel further this summer you’re your

Oyster card’: Registered oyster cardholders are offered the

opportunity to use their card as a method of discounted ferry travel

Red Funnel Ferries during the Olympic weeks.

6.2. Twitter

The social networking and micro-blogging service Twitter will be used to

create an account for quick but efficient ways to connect with a large

portion of the campaign's target audience. Tweets with relevant information

about the islands up and coming events and the campaign itself will be

posted, links to photos/videos/posts on the other channels used in the

campaign, as well as links directing traffic to the Island Breaks website. The

account will be used to join and start conversations with users interested in

island-related topics like tourism, camping, music festivals and so on.

The account will follow organisations connected with The Isle of Wight such

as @iwight, @IsleOfWightFest , @iwightradio and @iwcponline, as well as

the campaign's partnerships, @groupon, @sainsburys etc. Via these follower

based connections, buzz will be created around the campaign's purpose and

progress by using Twitter's re-tweet feature, with the campaign's tweets

reaching the above mentioned organisations' followers. (Fig 2).

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Fig 2: Demonstrates Twitter account

On occasion, competitions such as 'Best 140 characters or less description of

the island' will be held, with the prizes for the winners decided and

provided by Island Breaks.

6.3. Facebook

The strategy that we intend to implement via Facebook aims to

communicate with a variety of our target audiences by creating a new

Facebook page called ‘The Official Isle Experience’ or ‘The Isle of Wight

Official Page’. Currently there is already an Isle of Wight page active on

Facebook. However by regularly updating and using the additional pages and

a variety of additional applications these new pages intend to be marginally

better compared to ‘The Isle of Wight’ page. (Figure 1)

6.4. YouTube and DailyMotion

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The two largest video sharing websites www.youtube.com and

www.dailymotion.com will be used to upload and share video content with

the target audiences. Special backstage clips and interviews from specific

events, teaser videos about upcoming ones and such will be posted in both

accounts (Fig 3).

These websites will be used to interact with the user base and create

contests via the video response features. Depending on the topic of the

original video, the 'best' response video would win the prize provided by

island breaks or partnerships (on whose websites' the video can embed).

All content posted on both websites will be used to raise awareness about

the Isle of Wight through videos and short clips, in the description portion of

which the link to the island breaks website will be conveniently placed –

easily visible and accessed.

Fig 3: Demonstrates Isle of Wight YouTube page.

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WordPress (Blog)

6.5. A blog account (“The Wight Experience”) will be created on the

popular and widely used website WordPress.com as a main means for

reputations management. (Fig 4) The website provides options to

share entries across blogs as well as on Twitter and Facebook, which

would benefit the campaign as it's a way to raise awareness. Each

entry will be dedicated to a specific event or occurrence on The Isle

of Wight, without going into too much detail. At the end of each

post, the blog's visitors will be prompted to share their experience of

the Isle on that particular day or during said week. Through this, the

target audience's feedback will be not only monitored and responded

to but also available to people who have yet to visit the Isle as well.

Fig: Demonstrates WordPress page

Using the PollDaddy plugin feature, polls will be included in posts to better

categorize visitors' experiences. Highly positive results will be shared across

channels to create a buzz.

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Traffic will be driven to islandbreaks.co.uk by linking to the website in each

blog post, using users' positive feedback as tag lines or quotes to attract

attention and interact with visitors.

6.6. Disqus

The online discussion and commenting platform Disqus will be installed on

the blog account. It will enable visitors to log into their social network or

email accounts and comment. If the user chooses, their comment ends up

being cross-posted under the blog entry as well as on their social network

account (if they've logged on such) profile. This way, feedback covers a

wide range of channels and is highly useful to the campaign's main purpose

of raising awareness.

Fig 5: Demonstration of Disqus page.

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6.7. Google Analytics Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you

rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze

your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more

prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives

and create higher converting websites.

6.8. Additional Recommendations

Smartphone Application

Although an additional extra and added cost, this application ties in with

the entire campaign and calendar year with the potential to run over many

years.

The aim of the app is to act as a social calendar for smartphone users to the

island. Once downloaded the individual is shown a list of interests ranging

from music, outdoor activities and food and drink establishments. Once a

variety of interests have been selected the individual is then registered to

events and activities taking place throughout the year related to their

interests. Notifications are then directly sent to smart phone notify the

individual weeks in advance of the event with details. The individual can

decide whether or not they wish to attend and if so, a link will take them

directly to www.islandbreaks.com to book their accommodation and or

tickets.

There is great potential for this application to return on its development

costs. Not only can this idea be applied to a smartphone application, there

is an opportunity to create the same application for Facebook which would

broaden the variety of audiences.

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7. Timings & Implications Timings and implications focus heavily around user/audience specific

content generated via suitable social channels and at relevant times of the

year. The campaign will incorporate a continuous online presence over the

year long period. However the intermittent streamlined approach of raising

awareness and levels of interaction with each group with vary throughout

the year. This will enable savings on resources such as money and time, and

ensures that content is relevant and effectively meets the desired campaign

aims.

Influencing factors such as timings and social events/activities on the island

will shape much of the timings and implications in the campaign, and should

help to produce relevant content for each user/audience groups.

Understanding the different audiences’ and having completed user profiles

means being able to generate and aim content that fits their profile in

terms of availability during the year and likely interests. For example

targeting the international market at Christmas, who are likely to have left

the UK after the Olympics, is irrelevant to that market and ineffective for

the campaign.

Below is a list of each audience group and the specific times of the year

where they will be the focus of online drives, incentives and high levels of

interaction:

Families – school holidays, short weekend breaks

Affluent older couples – short weekends, major holiday seasons,

relevant events such as ‘Cowes week’

International Market – June to September (The Olympics)

Sports Enthusiasts – specific events such as ‘the Wight Challenge’,

‘Island Games’ ‘Walk the Wight’, camping season

Students – Summer season, festivals, camping

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This approach adds value to the campaign in presenting the brand as diverse

and relevant to a number of audiences for different reasons, and will make

interaction more effective adding value to the brand and prompting positive

user/audience response to the campaign.

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8. Budget Allocation of the budget has been determined by evaluating exactly where

the majority of time will be spent. Of the £50,000 budget which has been

allocated, a summarised budget has been comprised.

Wired PR works at a rate of £100 an hour. Of which the following

developments are made, regularly.

Account Management- Monitoring of success, Google Analytics etc.

6 hours p/w- £15,600

Publicity- Updating social media channels (Content, press, news etc.)

6 hours p/w- £

Promotions/Prize Partnerships

2 hours p/w-£5,200

Total: £46,800

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9. Campaign Measurement & Evaluation

The success of this campaign will be measured via a number of sources.

Ultimately the value of the proposed online communications strategy will

develop from the structure of the campaign.

9.1. Measuring online responses

On Twitter, the number of followers the account has is going to be

taken in mind. Focus is going to be placed on each tweet’s amount of

re-tweets. For further detail and specifics, the website

www.Klout.com will be used to measure the account’s influence and

popularity.

Regarding the video giants YouTube and DailyMotion, the number of

views on each video, as well as the number of comments it has

received, is going to be monitored daily. In addition, the number of

video responses to videos on both websites is going to be taken into

account.

On the WordPress-hosted “The Wight Experience” blog, each entry’s

number of comments will be easily monitored using the platform

Disqus’ features.

Competitons

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List of References