Norway

A custom application on Facebook for users to discover Norway.

Background

Innovation Norway, the tourism board for Norway, wanted to attract people who enjoy active travel and increase awareness of Norway as a beautiful place to experience the outdoors and European culture. They needed create excitement about a country that is not necessarily top of mind when planning a summer vacation.

The Norway brand team had worked with a branding agency to create a clear and compelling brand image based on detailed consumer research. It was a high priority for the brand to maintain the careful guidelines they had created for their imagery and messaging. With no experience in social media, the brand looked to Friend2Friend to make sure their campaign was both engaging and on-brand.

Objectives

1. Expose consumers outside of Norway (this campaign targeted Spain) to their brand
2. Present an exciting and colorful image of travel in Norway
3. Leverage the viral nature of social networks to spread their new messaging to a demographic targeted by age, interest, and geography
4. Maintain control over their brand imagery and messaging

Results

Friend2Friend created, designed and implemented a custom Facebook application that highlighted the brand’s stunning visual imagery and delivered an interactive and immersive experience around Norway. This virtual discovery game shows 14 different activities — ranging from glacier hikes to an ice palace to a café in Oslo to a Norwegian fjord — in a Web 2.0 carousel flash selector. Users are asked the question “Why do you want to do this with your friends in Norway?” and they answer the question to enter a sweepstakes for a Norwegian discovery trip for them and their friends. A user can answer, and enter the contest, once for each of the 14 activities – increasing the engagement level and time spent with the application. For each comment and entry, a Facebook newsfeed is generated. When friends see this feed, they see the brand icon, a beautiful visual image of Norway, and their friend’s comment about why they would want to visit Norway.

Friend2Friend designed and created a Facebook Fan Page for Spanish fans of “Visit Norway”, and invited contest participants to become a fan as part of the contest workflow. The new fan page looks professional and has many fans, but more than that, the fans are engaged and dynamically interacting with the brand and each other. A recent post by the Norway team quickly received over 150 “like this” responses, a sign that Norway’s content is well-received by their audience.

The contest generated entries by 40,000 people in a targeted geographic region, and gained the newly-created Spanish-language “Visit Norway” fan page 10,000 fans. With the success of the campaign in Spain, Norway’s main tourism office is considering extending this campaign to other countries and languages. As their first experience with social media, the Norway brand team was thrilled with the positive response, consistent brand messaging, and level of engagement generated through Friend2Friend’s application.