How Visit Iceland quantified the impact of their viral ad campaigns to win at Cannes, Effies, and more
In 2020, creative agency SS+K and partners Peel and M&C Saatchi Group developed a series of new ad campaigns for Visit Iceland. The campaigns built on timely insights around COVID19’s impact on travel, and were a hit with the press.
But SS+K and Visit Iceland needed a way to tell if the campaigns were actually driving travel intent:
“It’s easy to see the press coverage or the sentiment on social media, but we needed to know if the campaign was really growing interest in and plans to visit Iceland.”
— Elena Claro, SS+K Senior Strategist
SS+K used the science-based platform Swayable to answer the question: did the creative persuade audiences to visit Iceland?
SS+K tested each new ad against a control group who saw an unrelated placebo ad to isolate the difference in interest in visiting Iceland between those who saw the ad and those who did not.
Instead of testing the ads against the typical customer journey steps of awareness or consideration, SS+K and Swayable designed the test around how travelers actually shop, with 3 steps: Dream, Plan, Book.
“Being able to report how the ads performed against each step on the journey has helped us to crystallize the impact of our work.”
-Elena Claro, SS+K Senior Strategist
Did the campaigns drive real outcomes?
The Swayable tests revealed SS+K’s work increased the likelihood of people to rank Iceland number one for their next holiday and start planning their trip. The usage of RCTs (randomized controlled trials) allows us to prove with statistical significance that the campaigns increased travel intent.
The data proved helpful in awards applications as well:
“Everyone gets excited about the earned media, but we’re also looking for other measures of effectiveness … It was important to have something concretely measured with our target to show that our campaign was not just a flash in the pan, but it drove real brand and business results.”
-Elena Claro, SS+K Senior Strategist
“Looks like you need Iceland” cleaned up at the awards circuit as well, picking up three Cannes Lions, two ANDYs, five Effies, one Pencil from the One Show.
Curious how Swayable’s platform can quantify the impact of your creative?
Book a demo here: https://try.swayable.com/
Most importantly — what did the campaign look like?
‘Scream’ positioned Iceland as the perfect destination to let out the pain of living through the COVID19 pandemic. Visit Iceland launched a site where participants could scream into their phone, and that scream would be played live on one of seven speakers across the seven regions of Iceland.
‘Sweatpant boots’ debuted just as travel started to pick up again, centering around the idea of upcycling your sad lockdown sweatpants into adventure-ready hiking boots to explore Iceland in.
‘Outhorse your email’ took inspiration from the ‘always-on’ culture of working from home, offering vacationers a way to truly disconnect: an Icelandic horse will write your out of office email for you, so you can fully enjoy your vacation.
Want to try Swayable for yourself? https://try.swayable.com/
