Edward Lucas on the new Vilnius campaign: “Book a trip now” | Business

The giants of the media world were interested in advertising

The famous British journalist Edward Lucas, who published an article regarding campaign “Visit Vilnius. Jokes included”, said: “Lithuanians can be upset even by a parody of the unpleasant Soviet era. But the joke is on those who still believe these clichés. The fact that this campaign is already gaining international attention shows its effectiveness.”

In an article published on the European Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) portal, E. Lucas writes: “This campaign provides an important historical context. Visitors who do not remember the Soviet era (most of them nowadays) cannot always understand the creativity and determination in restoring the past glory and creating modern pleasures.

A breath of the past makes the present even sweeter. Lithuania can offer visitors the usual modern comforts and conveniences, as well as a history from grim to glorious, supplemented with a unique dose of geopolitical excitement. Book your trip now.”

After watching the comic clip of Vilnius on social networks, foreigners comment that the city has a sense of humor, and the advertisement encouraged them to plan a trip to Vilnius: “Great advertisement for Vilnius!” Fantastic job”, “Great tourism marketing! A trip to Vilnius is now on my bucket list”, “I’m already packing my bags. What’s wrong with me?”, “I started watching thinking: what a crazy and ironic video. Vilnius is the best. I can’t wait to get to know Lithuania! She is already in my heart!”

As of today, the video has received 1.2 million views so far. views, and the positive reaction to it across all social platforms – shares, likes and comments – is 95 percent. of all reactions.

Major foreign media such as BBC or The Times are interested in the new campaign and are already writing regarding it. Articles published in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Latvia. For example, in an article regarding the Vilnius campaign, the portal “Emerging Europe” noted that the capital of Lithuania touches on a topic relevant to the entire region, that the old negative stereotypes applied to the entire region of “Eastern Europe” still exist.

In addition, some journalists are interested in the opportunity to come to Vilnius and get to know it more closely – more than 10 journalists from such publications as “Forbes”, “The Sun”, “Daily Mirror” are scheduled to visit the capital in April alone.

The success of the campaign is shown by the goals set for it

Dovilė Aleksandravičienė, head of the Vilnius tourism and business development agency “Go Vilnius”, which created the campaign, says that she hears and accepts various reactions of the people of Vilnius and our country. “We observe and understand the opinions of our people – the response only shows that we all care regarding Vilnius and its image. However, even though the satirical images touched the feelings of some Lithuanians, the common denominator of the discussion should be the effectiveness of the advertisement and its goals in the audience for which it is intended.

And from the preliminary evaluation study, we saw that both Germans and Britons understand the message correctly and positively evaluate self-irony, and the advertisement promotes interest in Vilnius. Urban advertising is a broad field and each has its own goals and means,” she says.

According to her, some people had questions regarding why the images of modern Vilnius are shown in a shorter clip, but the long version of the video clip, which has been discussed, will not be broadcast on paid channels abroad as a separate advertisement, and the part of expectations and reality will be kept in proportion: short 6-30 second clips will be played on social platforms versions, along with billboards and outdoor advertising, so viewers will see both parts of it.

Confirmed based on preliminary research

The bold ad was tested in target markets before being released. Preliminary campaign evaluation studies conducted by the Institute of Marketing and Communication Sciences “KOG” in Germany and the United Kingdom showed that 51 percent 28 percent of respondents would look for more information regarding Vilnius following seeing the campaign video and billboards. would be inclined to plan a trip, and a quarter would like to share an ad with loved ones.

The head of the institute, Domantas Gailius, claims that the results of the preliminary evaluation study, which includes the attractiveness of advertising (English “Likeability”), were higher than the average in the target markets. “If the average of the advertising campaigns of this indicator reaches 28 percent, then the campaigns for Germany and Great Britain – analogously 36 and 35 percent.” by markets. Overall, in the evaluation, people shared mostly positive emotions, and almost no negative ones.

For more than half of the respondents, the ad was entertaining, caused surprise and laughter, which is in line with the database averages. Meanwhile, negative emotions were practically not caused – disgust, sadness, fear, anger fluctuate between 1-6 percent, when the base average is 10 percent. From this, we can judge the potential success of the campaign in the target markets”, says D. Gailius.

The total campaign budget is 0.5 million. EUR, which are allocated from the funds of the tourism fee (otherwise known as the “pillow tax” paid by tourists who come to Vilnius). 81,000 was allocated to the advertising budget. Eur., which includes the creation of a creative idea, a video clip, illustrations, internet advertising panels, outdoor advertising layouts. The advertising idea was created by the creative agency “BM Boutique”, the video clip was created by the production agency “Dansu”, directed by Simonas Aškelavičius.