Lausanne Tourism - Multi-channel campaign

Position Lausanne as a flagship destination for German-speaking Swiss customers.

Context

Lausanne Tourism was founded in 1887, with the support and collaboration of the Lausanne authorities and tourism partners, to promote the city of Lausanne both within Switzerland and abroad and to offer good conditions for visitors. As the capital of the canton of Vaud and the 4th largest city in Switzerland, Lausanne is known for its dynamic and open atmosphere, both economically, culturally, and in terms of sports and academics.

The international health crisis has greatly restricted the ability to travel abroad during holidays and weekends. Swiss incoming tourism, and more specifically tourism in Lausanne, has suffered as a result during 2020 and 2021. With strong competition in the national tourism industry, the health situation has greatly impacted Lausanne's reputation as a cultural or sports destination.

In 2020, the opportunity and need to promote regional tourism within Switzerland became apparent for Lausanne Tourism, and they mandated us to boost their summer period.

Expertises

ConceptionDigital StrategyBranding

See Lausanne Tourism's website

Objectives

Lausanne is sometimes overlooked or underestimated, and the rest of Switzerland may not be fully aware of the potential this small city holds. The goal of our collaboration was to develop a creative campaign that positions Lausanne as a trendy and attractive destination for a short stay, particularly among German-speaking Swiss customers looking for authentic experiences and places without being surrounded by crowds of tourists.

The idea of this campaign was also to capitalize on Monocle's article, naming Lausanne as "The best small city in the world" in 2020.

The mission of Marvelous was to achieve two main objectives in order to optimize the results of the summer season:

1. Position Lausanne as a top destination through an image-based campaign aimed at increasing visibility and traffic

2. Generate bookings at Lausanne establishments through a conversion-based campaign.

Our approach

As part of this collaboration, our team was responsible for both the campaign strategy - designing and creating the designs - and the set-up and optimization of the campaigns on various channels.

Lausanne Tourism, which was named by Monocle magazine as "The best small city in the world" in 2020, our approach was to play on this strong message that gives credibility and appeal to the destination.

The campaign took place after an international health crisis and semi-confinement, and this context required a certain caution in the way of approaching communication about tourism and travel. Indeed, the danger would have been to communicate too enthusiastically and risk a faux pas. The opportunity we seized was in the moderate desire for escape of the Swiss population and the fact that closer destinations would probably be preferred in the first place. We, therefore, made sure to convey all the energy and charm of Lausanne to the target audience by taking advantage of the current context and all that the Olympic capital has to offer.

The creative concept we imagined played on the contradictions and paradoxes related to the city of Lausanne to emphasize the qualities of the best small city in the world:

- Play on the authenticity and spontaneity that a small town offers while highlighting the wealth of its offerings.

- It is not always necessary to go to the ends of the earth to change the air and discover new horizons.

- It is the small details that make the difference and sometimes the best moments are those spent close to one's habits, with only one additional ingredient, such as changing the city.

The goal was to create several original static and animated visuals that visually stand out on the street and on all social platforms. The conversion and purchase decision, or travel in this case, then takes place later by the rationality of a landing page.

Results

By combining the campaign messages and visuals we created around the paradoxes that the city offers with the signature "Lausanne Best Small City in the World in 2020", we created a strong communication that presents Lausanne as a city that is both exciting and rich in resources.

Our creations were able to show the target audience that Lausanne encourages spontaneity, living in the present moment and exploring what is just around the corner: the time had come to experience the best small city in the world!

The campaign was widely distributed through multiple channels:
- Print F4 advertising in a selection of cities in German-speaking Switzerland
- Digital DOOH (Digital Out Of Home) advertising in selected train stations
- Sponsored videos on Youtube
- Organic and sponsored posts on social media
- Display GDN advertising
- SEA advertising

Overall, the campaigns reached their goals with very high visibility and high conversion rates compared to Lausanne Tourism's usual results and those of the industry. Creating a complete distribution ecosystem for this campaign was one of the key factors in the success of this campaign in terms of visibility, traffic, and notoriety.

Since this successful project, we have continued our collaboration with Lausanne Tourism on several projects in 2021 and 2022, in order to take on new challenges and respond to the evolution of communication needs.