Action for cultural jewels

We at Dreiseenland said to ourselves: it must be possible to make the jewels that our region has to offer a little more attractive to people in Switzerland. So we came up with a little campaign. Rent one of these fantastic properties for just one franc!" The Mayor of Biel is using this lure to promote the beauty of his tourist region in a summery, witty campaign. Expo.02 with the "Arteplages" in Biel, Murten, Neuchâtel and Yverdon is over. This is also reflected in the tourism figures. They are not bad. But they could be better. In addition to day trips, the main aim is to boost overnight stays in the region. Dreiseenland comprises the area around Lakes Biel, Neuchâtel and Murten. The former marshland has become dry following the Jura water corrections and, thanks to the good soil, is also the largest vegetable-growing area in Switzerland. "But what's missing here is a Matterhorn or any other flagship for tourism advertising," jokes Gilles Aebi from Numero 10. The advertiser therefore looked for other subjects and found them in a few very special hotels. Staying overnight in a patrician house or even a castle: thanks to this campaign, if you are lucky, you can do this by taking part in a competition on www.kulturjuwel.ch. The offer is disguised as a buzz campaign. Well over 34,000 visitors were attracted to the site in the first four weeks, with a third taking part in the competition with a "rental request" - with a presence time of around 5 minutes on the site. A good driver for the click rates was the integration of Facebook. A decisive trick in the whole campaign was that all the rental properties were not recognizable as hotels - although the castle with its knights' hall and prison is now run as one. Similarly, the historic monastery on St. Peter's Island now functions as a hotel, but is still advertised as a home for the monks in the Buzz campaign. With this somewhat distorted "declaration" as a rental property, the advertisers were also able to smuggle their message into the official real estate pages of major newspapers disguised as classified advertisements. As a further guerrilla measure, the rental properties were also offered as bargains on the notice boards for free advertisements in supermarkets.
Andreas Panzeri