Campaign
Winning Cannes and Effies with SS+K and Visit Iceland
May 5, 2023
Challenge:
Creative agency SS+K and partners Peel and M&C Saatchi Group developed a new ad campaign for Visit Iceland that positioned Iceland as the antidote the COVID19 pandemic. The campaigns were a hit with the press, but SS+K needed a way to tell if the campaigns were actually driving travel demand for Iceland:
“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
Solution:
SS+K used Swayable to measure the campaign's impact, zeroing in on 3 metrics: 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
Results:
The Swayable tests revealed that SS+K’s campaign increased the likelihood of people to rank Iceland number one for their next holiday and start planning their trip.
SS+K included Swayable's data to back up awards applications, picking up three Cannes Lions, two ANDYs, five Effies, one Pencil from the One Show.
“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
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.