Client: West Sweden Tourist Board

Brief: Having set up a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page – the latter two managed by Travel PR – in 2010, the West Sweden Tourist Board realised that it needed more material to generate conversations and bolster follower numbers on these sites and traffic on its website.  Tapping into the Swedish food scene’s trendiness, the Tourist Board decided to target food bloggers with the aim of promoting its Shellfish Journey, a themed autumnal event across the country’s west coast that showcases the educational and mouth-watering seafood safaris available.  West Sweden boasts some of the world’s best shellfish, as this project would hopefully make clear to a large online audience.

Delivery: A group of foodie bloggers visited West Sweden in October 2011 on a quest to indulge in the region’s sublime seafood.  Their trip took place during the renowned Shellfish Journey.  Their trip included a mussel safari in Lysekil, a seafood buffet at Café Ferdinand, the South Koster island, a five-course lobster feast at Sydkoster Hotel Ekenäs and oyster tastings and a lobster safari in Grebbestad fishing village.

Results: We achieved 13 separate articles on acclaimed blogs including Cook Sister, Tamarind & Thyme and Food Stories.  All five participants tweeted to their followers; a combined 146 tweets to 22,705 followers, each individual tweet including @westsweden and the hashtag #shellfishjourney.  Some of the bloggers also provided exposure for West Sweden on their Flickr and Facebook pages. An article (http://travelllll.com/2011/11/11/west-swedens-first-foray-into-blogtrips) subsequently appeared on Travelllll.com, the premier news site related to travel-blogging, about the pioneering project and its impressive success.

Client feedback: “Travel PR oversaw a competent, original campaign that has been very worthwhile.  We saw a vast increase in Twitter followers and traffic to www.westsweden.com in response, and much of the content produced was re-usable on other channels.  The bloggers that Travel PR chose wrote really well and took lovely pictures.  Most tweeted throughout the trip, and three of them published their blogs the first day they got back, so we got immediate return-on-investment.  Overall I’m delighted, and we will definitely continue to work with bloggers.” Ann-Charlotte Carlsson, Head of Marketing & Press for the UK for the West Sweden Tourist Board