Dear DMOs,
Let’s spike the marketing punch with a little spontaneity. Just a little! Just enough to get off of the bleachers and onto the dance floor. (Do people still spike the punch? Are dances still held in gymnasiums with bleachers? Do dances still exist?) Anyhow, we’ve been out of that scene for a little while, but we do know a thing or two about the digital marketing scene.
So, let’s boogie!
“Jumbo Shrimp.” “Act Natural.” “Planned Spontaneity.”
When it comes to planning spontaneous media, content and design for your marketing – known as ‘planned spontaneity’ in all its oxymoronic glory – that really just means implementing some real-time marketing into your efforts.
And real-time marketing doesn’t have to be this reactive, maniacally-watching-the-screen type of practice either. Your DMO can take advantage of and strategize marketing around events you know are coming, like major holidays, city events, pop culture trends, etc. You can engage your audience in the moment without having to react.
Think: what are people watching? What are they following? What do they care about right now? What will they care about?
Planned spontaneity in your DMO’s videos, social posts and emails will make your brand and your destination relatable to meeting planners in the moment.
Some planners organize meetings and events YEARS in advance. There isn’t always a lot of spontaneity in their planning since it opens up the margin for error. They’re planners, after all! But behind every planner is a person who’s watching the screen, looking for a little impulse just like we all are. They are constantly being inundated with hum-drum destination marketing, but they aren’t always planning business.
They’re following the new birth of the royal baby or the premiere of one of the most popular shows on television. They’re savvy. And when they see a piece of content that comes their way that’s on trend, it resonates. Carpe content!
How can your DMO fit key messages about the destination into a trending theme for some of your marketing efforts?
Our Version: Game of Drones
In April, we took a look at our email content calendar and, instead of living and breathing by what we had for April (planned in December 2018), we decided to…spike the punch a bit. Our content and creative teams had a quick sit-down, chewed the ‘What’s trending?’ fat a little, and then brainstormed some ideas on how to weave our content into a relevant, well-known trending theme for our April email.
Real-time marketing is relevant and engaging. It’s unrealistic to think your DMO’s editorial calendar or your marketing plans won’t change over time. Give those bad boys some space. Let them breathe and be a bit malleable. Travel trends pop up all the time. Your DMO needs to have trend hunters out there with their finger on the pulse of the trends, ready to deliver some content that will resonate!
