‘Another World’ TV campaign end on high note |03 May 2008

The campaign was launched by the Seychelles Tourism Board with Cable News Network (CNN), and feedback from the network also shows a click rate of 60% from internet users for the online adverts. 

STB’s destination marketing manager, Blaisila Hoffman, said: “CNN was chosen by the STB because it is a good medium that has an excellent reputation. It also allowed us to reach a targeted segment of affluent and frequent travellers worldwide that we would otherwise not have been able to reach.

“The US, for example, is a market Seychelles needs to tap into, as we have seen a slight increase in visitor arrivals from that part of the world.”

Ms Hoffman added that the long-term benefits of the campaign could include a significant rise in American honeymooners coming to Seychelles.

The campaign ran from January until March, promoting Seychelles as a leading holiday destination. It comprised 15 TV commercials on the CNN channel, online banner advertising on the CNN website and public relations and marketing activities. 

Rani R. Raad, senior vice-president of CNN’s international advertising sales, said CNN is a global leader for international tourism advertising and was pleased the STB chose its network to launch the campaign. CNN holds the highest percentage of viewers who are extensive travellers, over BBC World and Euronews.

The partnership strengthened the relationship between the STB and CNN, with the network extending the TV adverts for a further two weeks after the official close of the campaign.

The 30-second commercials, which positioned Seychelles as a unique holiday destination, were shown 247 times with an extra 20 bonus spots. They were shown between programmes such as World News, Larry King Live, World Sport and Inside Affair.

They reached an elite audience of avid business and holiday travellers, who received an insight into the Seychelles archipelago with its unique and rich diversity, natural beauty, vibrant culture, cuisine and art. A survey carried out by CNN showed the adverts were seen an estimated 12,160,000 times, including repeat viewings.

The Seychelles Islands…Another World campaign also benefited local partners through banner advertising. This gave the Hilton Seychelles, Denis Island Resort and Banyan Tree Resort extensive publicity, raising awareness about their services as the hotels were shown on every page of the website. Internet users could click on the banners to go to the hotels’ own websites. 

CNN.com users are also avid business and leisure travellers and are frequent hotel users compared to users of other websites such as Euronews.net and FT.com, representing a market segment that matches the hotels. The Banyan Tree Resort’s banner was shown the highest number of times, followed by Hilton Seychelles and Denis Island. All three hotels, however, received around the same percentage of clicks.

Since the start of the campaign, the Seychelles official destination website www.seychelles.travel has seen a knock-on effect, receiving over 76,000 visitors compared to 43,261 in the months before the campaign. 
The STB says it continues to promote Seychelles as the most desirable island destination on the market. The CNN campaign has demonstrated this vision, and post-campaign benefits are already starting to indicate a positive long-term return.

STB