by State board confirms target audience ‘already booked, just needs reassurance’
Marketing to the Converted
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation launched a Rs 12 crore advertising campaign this week targeting what its internal brief describes as “confirmed intent travellers,” defined as people who have already searched for Kerala on three or more platforms, read at least two travel blogs, and are currently in the process of booking, but who might, in the absence of a reassuring billboard in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex, experience a moment of doubt and book Goa instead.
Campaign director Ravi Backwaters said the strategy reflects “precision targeting in the modern tourism landscape.” “We know who is coming,” he said. “We want to make sure they feel good about it while they are in the act of making it happen.”
The Campaign Content
The ads feature familiar images of Kerala’s backwaters, spice gardens, elephants in temple processions, and Kathakali performers, all of which have appeared in every Kerala tourism campaign since 1989 and which, the Corporation notes, continue to test well “because they are true and also very beautiful.” A focus group conducted in Delhi found 94 percent of participants correctly identified the images as Kerala before reading any text, which the Corporation called “strong brand recognition” and the focus group facilitator called “they already know about Kerala.”
The campaign also runs on digital platforms where, analytics show, it is served primarily to people who have already visited Kerala and therefore represent repeat visit potential, a segment the Corporation calls “our most valuable audience” and which the algorithm calls “people who clicked Kerala content before.”
Results So Far
Advance bookings for the monsoon season are up 22 percent, a figure the Corporation attributes to the campaign. Tourism researcher Dr. Ananya Arrivals of Cochin University notes monsoon bookings have risen 18-25 percent annually for the past six years without a campaign of this scale, suggesting the trend may predate the billboards. The Kerala Tourism board confirmed the campaign is working and that any suggestion otherwise represents a misreading of the data. The backwaters remain beautiful regardless of who takes credit for the decision to visit them.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
