• Sign In

Destination Think!

Making the world better, one destination at a time

  • Read Our Blog
    • Brand and Identity
    • Content Marketing and Campaigns
      • Best Practices and Tactics
      • Tips from Destinations
    • Destination Marketing Strategy
      • DMO Leadership
      • Research and Analysis
      • Strategic Planning
      • Technology and Innovation
    • Visitor Experience
  • Hire Us
    • Contact Us
    • Send Us Your RFP
    • View Portfolio
    • See Services
    • Meet the Team
    • Learn About Events
      • Destination Think! Forum 2016
        • Program – 2016
        • Speakers – 2016
    • Read Company Updates
You are here: Home / Content Marketing and Campaigns / Best Practices and Tactics / Tennessee ads use mass customization to target visitors based on interests

Tennessee ads use mass customization to target visitors based on interests

May 27, 2016 by Paul Cubbon Leave a Comment

What do marketers mean when they talk about mass customization and why does it matter? What could you do differently to better engage your potential future visitors?

A recent video ad campaign by Tennessee Department of Tourist Development sought to show the wide variety of experiences available in the state in a way that would match the preferences of individual viewers. To accomplish this, according to Adweek, hundreds of short clips were ”stitched together as pre-roll ads that target users based on thousands of bits of data collected on them across the web.” In this way, the destination hoped to provide more relevant messages to its audience and therefore more effective promotion.

Paris, Tennessee
Image credit: Kathleen Tyler Conklin, Flickr

Paid video advertising in traditional media, as epitomized by the 30-second TV ad, forces advertisers to summarize their proposition to potential customers in a “one size fits all” approach. These commercials might use a montage to demonstrate different aspects of a destination, but viewers typically recall the simplistic stereotypes presented. As an example, see the cultural artwork and the RCMP uniform shown in this 1987 Air Canada ad. These ads lack a call to action that would resonate with any individual potential visitor that is specific to what the destination actually offers.

Maybe this worked for Ford with the Model T (a single variety available in black) or with anti-dandruff shampoo (one promise to solve one problem type). But what about a destination for tourists – a place with many, many rich and distinct experiences to offer?

For destinations, mass customization risks being dismissed as a superficial overclaim and oxymoron. However, the intent behind the term is important. It suggests a move towards customized marketing and personalization that would make the content and message more relevant to a specific audience or even a specific person.

Unfortunately, we too often see semi-automated message “customization,” which is crudely linked to a partial profile of an individual and based on past search or online social behaviour instead of on future interest and intent.

The Tennessee campaign highlights interesting elements that make customization possible and potentially effective:

• It reflects that costs and timelines on quality content production have been greatly reduced, allowing for multiple executions.
• It focuses on one promise per video.
• It reflects real, authentic experiences from the destination that can fit with a potential visitor’s interests.

What will make mass customization more effective?

Part of the future challenge for destination marketers will be to establish a stronger link between a predictive customization of content and a potential visitor’s planning habits around single experiences.

We can also expect to see increasing personalization using factors of time and space. Marketers will create more realistic and inspiring content using tools like virtual reality, while mining for the best data to establish predictive matching that ensure that the right experiences are offered to the right people. These elements will help ensure that ads are directed to match the viewer’s intent and lead them toward a decision to purchase.

However, these opportunities only makes sense for a destination that has cultivated a variety of compelling experiences that they can show to specific target groups at the right time.

Related reading: How destinations use data to better collaborate with industry and reach consumers

Filed Under: Best Practices and Tactics, Content Marketing and Campaigns, Day Trip, Innovation & Trends Tagged With: mass customization, potential visitors, targeting, tennessee, traditional media

About Paul Cubbon

Training Designer & e-Marketing Consultant at Destination Think!

Paul knows that the best things in life come from serendipitous human encounters in unplanned travel escapades. He lives life big and loud. He met his Canadian wife in an elephant reserve in Zimbabwe, found Tofino before it was on the tourist map, accidentally stayed (with his wife) at a brothel in northern Thailand (pre-social, those guidebooks were sometimes behind on change!), and took his kids out of school for 3-months to show them around Australia.

As a 30-year marketing professional, and university educator, Paul has a passion for understanding human behaviour and decision-making, and how to harness influence in peer networks. He is experimental and likes nothing better than designing disruptive tests that enhance customer experience and delight.

« How your DMO can measure success in the new marketing world
Destination Think! Joins Tourism and Events Queensland’s Agency Roster »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You’ve found your partner for destination marketing

We work with the most innovative tourism boards in the world to create a vision for each of their destinations, solve business challenges and execute brilliant, integrated campaigns. The expertise we apply to that work is shared in the articles published here and in our DMO Matters newsletter.

Welcome to Destination Think!.

LEARN MORE ABOUT US

Get updates to your inbox!

Fields marked with a * are required.

 
Subscribe to DMO Matters, a must-read weekly digest of leading destination marketing trends and leadership.
 

Just published

Conservation sparks new tourism experience in Bay of Plenty: Whakatāne’s Kiwi Wandering Trail

January 25, 2019 By David Archer

The ultimate place brand reading list for destination marketers

January 11, 2019 By Think! Staff

3 content marketing trends to take your DMO into 2019

December 21, 2018 By David Archer

Now available: 4 RFP questions your destination brand agency must answer

December 14, 2018 By Think! Staff

Place brands that lack substance are doomed to disappoint

December 7, 2018 By Frank Cuypers

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Terms and conditions
Privacy policy
Report technical issue

© 2019 Destination Think! - All rights reserved. All destination images used with permission and gratitude.