Plans Book Final Draft (1)

Costa RicaTourism BoardFall 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OUR CREW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

INDUSTRY/CONSUMER TRENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

TARGET MARKET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RESEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CONCEPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CREATIVE EXECUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CONSUMER JOURNEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MEDIA STRATEGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ROI EVALUATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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OUR CREW

Emily GarrisonAccount Executive

Kara WexlerAccount Executive

Jessie JohnsonPublic Relations

Hayden WilsonPublic Relations

Sapna MistryAccount Planner

Oyinda OluwaCopywriter

Emily DeMarioCopywriter

Kurt GloedeMedia Planner

Katie KurnettCreative

Jazmyn WormelyCreative

Kate BoudreauCreative

Costa Rica offers a unique travel experience unlike any of its competition. The rich culture and undiscovered natural environments position the country as a perfect travel destination for Americans. From surfing on the Santa Teresa Beach to ziplining on the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica provides a perfect getaway for a wide variety of travelers. As tourism accounts for a substantial boost to its economy, the Costa Rica Tourism Board is looking to further improve its positioning as a premiere travel destination. Costa Rica Tourism Board functions as the foundation for planning and understanding a trip to the country. 22squared’s most recent campaign, “Save The Americans,” streamlines into the existing digital presence for the board and incorporates the insight that Americans are overworked and under-vacationed. Kurtnos is proposing a new campaign to entice Americans to travel to Costa Rica for their next vacation spot. We plan to add onto existing digital platforms and expand our reach through various outdoor executions. By catching unsuspecting Americans during routine moments, our campaign will create valuable executions which will garner talk-worthy media attention.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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Tourism is one of the largest industries in almost every country around the world. Each country runs its own campaign in attempt to attract tourists. Our task is to make sure Costa Rica’s campaign can be distinguished among this saturated market.

Travel as a reward Consumers look at traveling as a personal experience and a reward for their hard work. Due to this reward characteristic, consumers are spending more money on luxury travel.

Seeking balance between authentic culture and first world amenitiesConsumers are looking for local experiences, adventure travel that gives back, multigenerational trips and pop-culture tourism. However, they still also want amenities such as free Wifi.

In 1930, Costa Rica began its tourism development with the creation of its first hotel. Many years later, on August 9th, 1955, the Costa Rican Tourism Board was founded. Currently, the board is going through organizational change in order to make the Costa Rican Tourism industry more competitive and to maintain its share of the international market. The vision of the company is “to be the leading and rector institution for the country’s tourism activity.”

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

COMPANY BACKGROUND

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CONSUMER TRENDS

Age influences travel destination preferences Millennials are making the most international trips, followed by Baby Boomers and then Generation X.

Search habits are often more ambitious than actual bookingsOnline booking has become increasingly popular. Consumers often book shorter trips than they initially search for.

Limited vacation time Consumers are prone to take shorter weekend trips rather than longer vacations.

Costa Rica Mexico Hawaii Nicaragua Panama

Tagline “Save the Americans” “Live it to believe it” “Let Hawaii Happen”

“Unspoiled. Uncommon. Unforgettable.”

“panama es posible”

Social Presence* Facebook - 800KTwitter - 16KInstagram - 14K

Facebook - 4,000KTwitter - 128KInstagram - 11K

Facebook - 2,000K Twitter - 49KInstagram - 95K

Facebook - 65K Twitter - 3.7KInstagram - no official handle

Facebook - 16K Twitter - 5KInstagram - 9.8K

Costa Rica Mexico Hawaii Nicaragua Panama

Overall Values The “Save the Americans” campaign consists of animals convincing over-worked Americans to take a break from their jobs. It efficiently uses a small budget to create content that generates awareness about the country.

“Live it to believe it” is a very colorful campaign that uses a mix of videos and photos across their platforms. It highlights specific places, attractions, and holidays in the country.

All content across social media platforms ties into the hashtag #LetHawaiiHappen. They create lists for best things to do, eat, etc. and also feature consumer created content on all platforms.

Nicaragua is a competitor to Costa Rica because the countries are similar in culture, attractions, etc.The music on the website makes it very immersive and engaging.

Visit Panama currently has a promotion in order to find an influencer who will get a 1 week trip to Panama to document what happens when they #visitpanama.

Drawbacks The social media platforms do not have as many followers/likes when compared to their major competitors, Mexico and Hawaii.

Instagram does not use the highest quality photos and photo captions do not clearly exemplify the “live it to believe it” tagline.

They reuse the same content on all social media platforms which results in a lack of variety.

The website is not the most visually appealing (big paragraphs of information). The social media posts are in Spanish which ostracizes a large portion of American travelers.

Social media platforms all hold the same content. The majority of the content is in Spanish.

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COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

*Approximations as of 12/1/2015

DEMOGRAPHICSThe U.S. Best Prospect population is 19 million. Our target market contains a mix of single and married individuals, over 30, who have a college education. They have high HHI ($100K+) and a valid passport. They primarily reside in New York City, Denver, San Diego, Houston and Miami.

PSYCHOGRAPHICSOur target is viewed as an “Eco-conscious explorer.” They are heavy travelers, optimistic about life, influencers among their peers, and adventurous in nature. They appreciate sustainability and living healthy. They are very social and frequently attend social gatherings for either work or pleasure. These explorers value community, new experiences, culture, and live for the moment. They love the “off-itinerary” experience.

MEDIA HABITSActive social media users, our target market enjoys staying up to date with the latest social media trends. They are constantly looking for ways to stay connected to their community. Their highest amount of media consumption occurs during procrastination periods, right before bed, or during idle times before an event.

TARGET MARKET

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MEET JENNIFER. Jennifer is a 30 year old consultant that lives in San Diego with her husband. She

makes $70K per year and travels often for work. She has a busy lifestyle working a full-

time job while maintaining an active social calendar. Jennifer is very adventurous and

during her off time, loves to explore new cities and cultures. She is passionate about

keeping up with current trends that suit her active lifestyle. Itching to get away and

explore a new territory, she loves following travel bloggers to get inspiration for her

adventures.

TARGET MARKET PROFILES

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MEET CHRIS.Chris is a 35 year old hotshot living in Houston. He makes $100K a year as a well

established lawyer. Fun, optimistic, and life of the party are a few words his friends

use to describe him. Living a very adventurous bachelor life, he enjoys spending

his free weekends hiking, kayaking, and mountain biking. He’s always up for

exploring new sites with his friends. Spending his days cooped up in his office, he

is eager for a break from his demanding lifestyle. His vacation has to offer a little bit

of everything. He longs to explore the unfamiliar.

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RESEARCH

• To discover what our target market finds least/most important when booking a vacation.

• To understand our target market’s perceptions of Costa Rica.• To uncover what interests our target market when on a vacation.

PRIMARY RESEARCHWe conducted an online survey reaching over 200 individuals within our target market. The purpose of this survey was to further understand our target market’s vacationing preferences and habits. We sought to gather information concerning their past travels, aspirational trips, priorities which influence their travel choices, and favorite activities while abroad. For those who had previously traveled to Costa Rica, we asked additional questions to learn more about the pros and cons of their trips.

81% of our responses came from Females. The majority of our respondents felt that culture is the most important factor when traveling, and they most often travel with their family or friends. This correlates with the responses for what is least important since the majority of those surveyed felt that transportation was least important, followed by accommodations. Only 17% have visited Costa Rica before and were most interested in Costa Rica’s people, scenery, and thrilling adventures.

Additionally, we held multiple in-depth interviews to gather a deeper understanding of various travelers’ perspectives. We spoke with those who had been to Costa Rica to understand the highlights of their trips, as well as those who had not yet visited the country to better grasp their barriers to travel. Most of these individuals cited financial concerns, and the overwhelming pressure to plan a trip to a less common destination.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

RESEARCH METHODS

Based on our research, we found that our market is interested in discovering the unchartered aspects of Costa Rica. They want to experience the culture for themselves while creating their own experiences. For some, travel is a dream that comes true once a year for the annual vacation. Often times, our target market yearns for greater travel adventure. They travel to challenge themselves, to enjoy new experiences, to experience new cultures, and to see new sights.

INSIGHT

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CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

1. Increase audience growth by 10% on Facebook, 20% on Twitter,and 40% on Instagram

2. Increase tourism arrivals during the dry season by 4% and increase tourism arrivals during the wet season by 8%

3. Generate 200,000 engagements with #FindCostaRica

4. Increase traffic to Costa Rica Tourism Board website by 15%

Costa Rica is filled with undiscovered opportunities. The country represents a break from our day-to-day lives spent staring at screens and living vicariously through social media. We want Americans to experience Costa Rica for themselves.

So, we are challenging Americans to Find Costa Rica and make their experience completely unique.

We are targeting consumers where they least expect it through unexpected placement in their everyday world. Between bus stops and urinals, we will catch consumers during the most routine parts of their day to entice the explorer within. Once they’ve found these unconventional messages, we will encourage them to bring the conversation to social media for city-specific prizes including coupons for free Costa Rican coffee, and all-expense paid trips to Costa Rica for selected lucky winners. In between enticing consumers with unexpected guerilla media, we will post several cryptic longitude and latitudes of Costa Rican sites to social media to encourage our audience to find these spots for themselves. This integrated campaign targets the instinctual desire for adventure that so many of our target lost as they grew up. Costa Rica is waiting for them, they just have to find it for themselves.

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COSTA RICAFIND

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CONCEPT

Interior Bus: By replacing bus handles with zip line bars, passengers will be enticed to imagine the greater experiences available in Costa Rica in direct contrast to the routine day ahead of them at work. Images will be placed on the sides of the bus as well as the bottom to depict the visuals that are experienced when rushing down a zipline. This, coupled with the natural movements of the bus, will lend to a greater simulation of the zipline experience.

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

Bus Stop: Our bus stop ads will play on the slowness of sloths in comparison to waiting for the bus. An image of the sloth will be placed hanging from the top of the bus stop paired with playful copy.

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OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

5.5189° N, 87.0717° WTweet the secret location with

#FindCostaRica for a chance to win a free trip to

Costa Rica!


#FindCostaRica for a chance to win a free trip to

Costa Rica!

Elevator: By turning awkward elevator rides into mini portals into the Costa Rican rainforest, we are gifting disillusioned, corporate America a moment surrounded by some of the best scenery Costa Rica has to offer - and during their regular day. This is meant to be an unexpected reprieve. A small treat, like a chocolate on your pillow, that directly contrasts with the mundanity of their office jobs. Our executions include an intern elevator, painted with a unique Costa Rican location displayed on the back. The images will be from a ground perspective, as if the back of the elevator has opened in Costa Rica. The elevator will also be equipped with the sounds of Costa Rica to round off an authentic experience.

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OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

Street Poles: Swinging high above the heads of those passing by, Costa Rican animals will hide among street poles. When people walk by and happen to look up, they will find a short description about the animal.

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OUTDOOR ADVERTISING


#FindCostaRica for a chance to win a free trip to Costa Rica!

Nature’s calling.

Find CostA RicaTweet #FindCostaRica

for a free cup of coffee.#FindCostaRica

Bathroom: When nature calls, it usually doesn’t include added entertainment. Our restroom ads will demand the attention of those with little to do other than search the coordinates shown on the ad placement. Similarly, finding an advertisement inside such a conventionally intimate place will garner attention simply by virtue of its unconventional placement. Our hope is that the mix of idle time and unconventionality will incentivize meaningful engagement with our media platforms.

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

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Coffee Cups: Partnering with Caribou Coffee we will place sketches of Costa Rican animals at the bottom of coffee cups. As consumers are finishing their last cups of joe and preparing for their busy days ahead, a friendly animal will be smiling back. You found him; now find Costa Rica.

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

5.5189° N, 87.0717° W

Tweet the secret location with #FindCostaRica for a chance to

win a free trip to Costa Rica!

5.5189° N, 87.0717° W

Tweet the secret location with #FindCostaRica for a chance to

win a free trip to Costa Rica!

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

COSTA RICA

FIND

COSTA RICAFIND Bring back more than

dirty laundry.#FindCostaRica

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OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

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Tweet the secret location with #FindCostaRicafor a chance to win a trip to Costa Rica!

5.5189° N, 87.0717° W

Suitcase: Our “Sloth Suitcase” was designed for baggage claim areas at major airports in our target cities. The suitcase allows us to target specific traveling groups by tracking the flights returning to the city on that day. Since we want to target people who have passports and travel internationally, we can place the bags in the international baggage claim areas. Out Sloth Suitcase is a fun way to interest travelers as they wait for their luggage while encouraging them to find and bring back something more on their next trip.

Volcano: There is a lot of hustle and bustle in New York City that is hard to break through. What better way to shake up a morning walk to work than turning those orange steam pipes into the great Arenal Volcano. Our pop up volcanoes will appear at night with coordinates on them that link back to Arenal. This interruption from the day to day New York scene will entice consumers to find out more about the Volcano, and find out more about Costa Rica.


#FindCostaRica for a chance to win a free trip to Costa Rica!

To incentivize engagement with our campaign, each outdoor placement will have copy representing the latitude and longitude of unique Costa Rican locations. We will challenge our audience to guess the name of these featured places and respond with their answer via Twitter. Each outdoor placement will showcase a city-specialized hashtag (#FindCostaRicaSanDiego, #FindCostaRicaMiami, etc). After following our account and posting their answer to the outdoor placement, we will send out links to redeem prizes ranging from free Costa Rican coffee all the way to an all-expense paid trip.

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

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INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN

Plant Wall: In order to drive more traffic to our social media platforms, we will execute an integrated experiential campaign centered around authentic Costa Rican cuisine sourced from unknown rainforest ingredients. The stunt will kick off with an unexpected plant wall of edible Costa Rican ingredients, which will appear on the side of a building after a rainstorm to tie into the campaign’s platform of finding Costa Rica in unexpected places. We will drive interest in the event by posting authentic recipes featuring the ingredients to platforms such as Pinterest, which will house our Find Costa Rica Food content and Facebook, which will promote videos. Posts highlighting the event and recipes on Pinterest will be posted to the other social media outlets as well.

On the day of the stunt, we will host an event in which executive chefs of Costa Rican cuisine cater the exclusive party with our featured recipes. Some of the attendants of this event will be food bloggers and travel bloggers, who will post content throughout the event with the hashtag #FindCostaRica to tie the event back to our main platforms. After the event, we will post how to videos of the chefs making the recipes across all social platforms.

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

EXPERIENTIAL

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Through Instagram, we will seek out

third-party travel influencers to take

over our social profile for the duration

of their trip. Our Instagram will add

unique perspectives on the country

while remaining fresh and interesting.

Additionally, these influencers can

reach untapped audiences already

interested in travel through posts from

their personal page that direct them

to engage with our content . These

individuals will project the idea that

each traveler who comes through

Costa Rica has the chance to make their

experience completely unique and

Find Costa Rica for themselves.

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

SOCIAL INFLUENCERS

Buzzfeed quizzes will be created using a personal account and will be sponsored and posted through the Costa Rica Tourism Board Facebook account.

Consumers will “find” Costa Rica by engaging in these quizzes and discovering uncommon aspects of Costa Rica- from animal species to various activities available.

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BUZZFEED

Pinterest is the optimal platform to reduce the obstacle of planning an extravagant trip. This platform will highlight everything including the best activities, where to stay, what to pack, and much more in an easily consumable package. Each board will tie back to the campaign with their relevant titles:

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CREATIVE EXECUTIONS

PINTEREST

Find Adventure (a board for activities)

Find Home (for booking options)

Find Food (the best cuisine)

Find the Perfect Wardrobe (what to pack)

The website will act as a secondary hub linking directly to our external efforts. Similar to the existing interactive map on SaveTheAmericans.org, we will also showcase our key targeted markets and the city-specific conversation through selected streams.

We will adjust VisitCostaRica.com to include a banner highlighting our new campaign.

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WEBSITE INTEGRATION

Social Media#FindCostaRica

Website Integration

UnconventionalPlacements

Experiential Marketing

The consumer journey will involve several different entrance points to our campaign, all of which link back to the hub of our social media platforms. All elements will drive back to our digital profiles through integration of #FindCostaRica in all of our efforts. Our primary digital platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) will unite our campaign to drive consumers to action.

CONSUMER JOURNEY

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MEDIA STRATEGY

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The total media buying budget will be around 2.2 million dollars. Advertising will be constant throughout the year. Our leanest time will be June through October. Starting in November, we will ramp up our ad placements to advertise heavily from the holiday season through April. Since December marks the beginning of Costa Rica’s dry season, we will be advertising consistently through this peak travel season. We continue our advertising all the way through into the start of the wet season . We designed it so that the aftereffects of our advertising will generate tourism even into the wet season. During Costa Rica’s wettest months, we recommend scaling back but not eliminating our advertising campaign. So as to effectively engage our target market, we will focus our efforts in Denver, San Diego, Houston, New York, and Miami.

We have allocated close to a third of our budget for social media. Much of that will go to promoting posts, recreating the banner on Costa Rica’s site, and maintaining a constant media presence across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. We will spend the rest of the budget on real world media placements. Bus stop ads and ads within buses will allow us to increase both reach and frequency. Since ads on street poles, steam vents, and social media will increase reach we wanted to use elevator ads to increase our frequency within markets that we feel are more likely to act on our message. Thus, we have allocated nearly a third of our budget to elevator ad placements.

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MEDIA STRATEGY

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Overall, we hope to increase the percentage of audience growth on all our social platforms through this campaign. For Facebook and Twitter, we will use their platform insights to measure all posts engagement through profile clicks, post likes, and new followers to the page. The metrics on these platforms will also help determine which specific posts resulted in the most engagement with our target market.

For Pinterest and Instagram, we will look at the percentage increase in followers as well as post likes to determine the success of the content on this platform

All of our executions will be connected by the hashtag #FindCostaRica. The engagements with this hashtag will serve as the driving factor of concluding how successful our campaign was. With the location specific hashtags, we can see which cities engaged with our content the most, which will help when creating future campaigns.

ROI EVALUATION

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During the 2010 and 2014 World Cup Soccer matches, hashflags were introduced to the Twitter platform. Whenever

fans tweeted with #USA or #ITA, that countries respective flag would show up as an emoji at the end of the hashtag.

In September 2015, Coca-Cola became the first company to create a branded, permanent hashflag for their

#ShareACoke campaign. The day of its launch, the hashtag received over 170,000 mentions globally. With this

mindset, we propose to make #FindCostaRica a branded hashtag using the sloth emoji. Due to the increased usage

of emojis by consumers, this will be a fun way to engage with the brand and share experiences as visitors discover the

unexpected in Costa Rica.

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FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS

Another recommendation we have is to create a web series following a group of people through their trip to Costa

Rica. Consumers will enter to be chosen as participants by submitting a three minute video explaining how travel has

impacted their life. We will fly the chosen random group of strangers out to Costa Rica and film their journey. Part of

the journey will be providing them with latitude and longitude coordinates and having them find these undiscovered

places.

Finally, a humorous execution for Costa Rica that we recommend is a video with slow motion images of people running

with the perception that they are running towards each other when in reality, they are running towards various sights

and objects in Costa Rica. The video will have songs such as Survivor’s “The Search is Over” or The Fray’s “You Found

Me” playing in the background. The line , “The search is over… Find Costa Rica” will display at the end.

#FindCostaRica

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX

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THANK YOU

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Plans Book Final Draft (1)

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