YOUR LINK TO SCANDINAVIA

FULL-SERVICE REPRESENTATION AGENCY IN SCANDINAVIA & FINLAND

CASES

Cases

Category:
Strategy, Marketing, PR, Sales

Visit California

360 DEGREE DESTINATION MARKETING STRATEGY

Atlantic Link is the leading representation agency in Scandinavia and Finland. In fact, we are the only full-service agency in the region to offer sales, marketing and PR all under one roof – making us able to build integrated 360-degree destination marketing strategies for our clients. Since 2003, Visit California has trusted us with growing their sales and media presence in the Nordic region.

OUR APPROACH
In 2019, California welcomed 279,000 Nordic visitors who spent $661 million in the state. To continue to grow and recover visitation and spend in the state our strategy is built on the cornerstones: Trade, PR and Content.

TRADE
We constantly engage with the travel trade at B2B workshops, trade shows and on sales calls. To educate the trade we create newsletters, sales activations, leverage online training tools, conduct webinars and organize FAM trips. We work closely with content managers to ensure that the messaging is consistent, and the right content meet the consumers on the tour operator’s own platforms.

PUBLIC RELATIONS
We work with a mix of selected traditional and online media as well as digital influencers to ensure high-quality exposure of California to our defined target groups. We engage with media for exclusive pitches, story developments and organize individual and group press trips for both media and influencers. We evaluate coverage and partners on an ongoing basis to make sure that we have high impact in all four markets.

CONTENT
Working closely with the travel trade on content development and media and influencers for story development is an important part of our content strategy for Visit California. But equally important, we keep a close dialogue with consumers through Visit California’s Facebook page, that we develop localized inspirational content for and manage. Furthermore, we execute co-op campaigns with airlines partners and OTAs to inspire Nordic travelers to travel to California giving them a direct call to action.

RESULTS
Initiatives across all disciplines are closely evaluated, and results are reported to our clients. We work with clear and ambitious KPI’s and our experience with destination marketing, combined with our market intelligence and strong network of trade and media in the Nordic region makes us able to create impactful results across four markets at once. See some Visit California highlights from this year below.

VISIT CALIFORNIA

Highlights

USA Travel Show 2023

California was strongly represented at the grand travel industry event USA Travel Show 2023. Visit California and partners from Visit Palm Springs, Visit West Hollywood, San Francisco Travel, Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite/Mariposa County met with 150+ Scandinavian travel agents and journalists at this event.

California has historically also been widely represented at the previous yearly USA Travel Shows.

SoCal Content Manager FAM

We organize FAM trips throughout the year with different focus areas. In this case we invited a group of Content Managers on a FAM trip to South California with Air Canada, to give them a first-hand experience of California, making them able to create original and inspiring California content for their customers. After the FAM trip, plenty of California content and new products have been made available to consumers on the tour operators’ websites, blogs, and Facebook channels.

Visiting Media in Northern California

Getting Scandinavian media to California is a key part of our strategy, and we work tirelessly on organizing individual press visits as well as group press trips. As the Scandinavian media landscape is dominated by freelancers, we partner with selected high-impact freelancers. An example is our partnership with journalist Jan Aagaard that secured high-quality inspirational coverage of winemaking and Northern California. The articles resulted in a reach of 1,725,349 and AVE of $97,100.

Hotels.com Road Trip Campaign

Co-op campaigns are very effective at driving awareness and increasing bookings. This year, we partnered with Hotels.com (Expedia) for an inspirational campaign focusing on California as an ideal road trip destination. Content included sample itineraries and Road Trip Republic content also linking consumers directly to Visit California’s Road Trip Planning tool. During the campaign period bookings to California increased by 15%.

Visit California has worked with Atlantic Link as our representation agency in Scandinavia and Finland since 2003. Over the last 20 years, their budget, responsibilities and success in marketing the California brand has grown.

In the Scandinavian market, Atlantic Link has developed campaigns and initiatives in the public relations, trade, content and social media sectors to expand Visit California’s presence and drive visitation to the Golden State. Their strong relationships and innovative spirit have allowed us to create a multi-disciplinary marketing program and has kept the region in Visit California’s portfolio of top international markets for nearly 20 years.

Atlantic Link has represented California at trade events in the Nordic region, including Discover America USA travel show in Denmark, FDM Travel USA in Denmark, and Swanson’s Travel Day in Sweden. During recent years, they have expanded these opportunities, generating California industry partner involvement and curating network connections for Visit California stakeholders.

Their creativity in the trade, public relations and content space has made Atlantic Link a leader amongst Visit California’s network of agencies, with many replicating best-practices brought to us by Karin and her team.

Atlantic link is an excellent full-service representation agency, always providing invaluable insight and ROI, going beyond our expectations and continually demonstrating they are a strong partner in the tourism marketing industry.

Leona Reed, Associate Vice President, Global Marketing, Visit California