Case Study: The Tourism CoLab—Event Marketing
CASE STUDIES & TESTIMONIALS
How tailored event marketing successfully launched this virtual summit
Our brief: What The Tourism CoLab needed
The Tourism CoLab, an organisation dedicated to education and the practical implementation of regenerative development practices and innovation entrusted Mankind Digital with launching its inaugural international symposium event. The event, Regenerative Tourism by Design Virtual Summit 2024, was hosted online over two days in February 2024. Here’s what our brief involved:
Craft an engaging event marketing strategy
We were tasked with the challenge of creating a marketing and communications strategy that would secure 200 event registrations for the virtual summit within a six week period. In order to achieve this, the campaign needed to invoke curiosity about how regenerative development intersects with tourism and community wealth building, thus inspiring a global audience to register for, and participate in the event.
Launch and establish a community for the Tourism CoLab’s new online hub
The event marketing strategy also needed to support the launch of The Tourism CoLab’s virtual community of practice, learning centre and resource hub for tourism and community development practitioners. Designed for graduates, changemakers, thinkers, doers, creatives and policy makers, the CoLab wanted to grow the platform’s subscriber base to 100 over the three month period following the virtual summit in February.
Our strategy for The Tourism CoLab
Our response to The Tourism CoLab’s goals and objectives first focused on developing an initial event marketing and communications campaign strategy with phased delivery across multiple digital channels. We followed this up by writing influential content designed to drive online registrations for the event. These are the elements of the strategy we put together:
Event branding and strategy development
First, we cemented the event brand name—‘Regenerative Tourism by Design Virtual Summit 2024’. Drawing on our expertise in digital marketing and communications, we prepared an event marketing and communications strategy, implementation road map and marketing budget recommendation.
Maximising reach through affiliate collaboration
By setting up an affiliate marketing/partner collaboration strategy, we set the stage to boost the reach of our event marketing campaigns. We leveraged existing relationships with tourism professionals, academics and those working in community development around the world.
Visual and written content planning
We developed content calendars for scheduling campaign activity across all digital channels, along with writing high-quality content for each channel. The content produced by our copywriters was published across The Tourism CoLab’s website, email marketing and event registrations platforms, LinkedIn, Facebook and affiliate communications.
Harmonised brand identity
Our team produced branded graphics to be used for the event registration and reminder campaigns, along with branded Zoom backgrounds for The Tourism CoLab team to use in their role as hosts throughout the virtual summit. This helped to maintain uniformity throughout the delivery of the event.
New brand name and tagline
Before launching The Tourism CoLab’s community of practice, we developed a brand name and tagline that encapsulated the CoLab’s vision for how it would operate. Our chosen brand name and tagline—CoLab Communiversity: Learn, Share, Thrive—establishes a cohesive identity for this part of the organisation.
The results this project delivered
Our tailored strategy delivered several clear wins for The Tourism CoLab, and exceeded their expectations.
Event sold out well before expected time frame
More than 20 international guest speakers, including thought leaders and experts in regenerative tourism and community development were a major drawcard. Our marketing strategy and content capitalised on this, resulting in the event reaching full capacity within 72 hours and achieving a whopping 480 registrations! By the first day of the summit, 336 registrations for a waiting list were also secured as a result of the successful campaign.
Seamless execution with brand consistency
The Tourism CoLab maintained consistent branding and messaging on all platforms throughout the campaign. The structured marketing strategy, coupled with careful timing and deadlines aligned with key milestones, ensured that all aspects of this well-managed campaign were delivered effectively, and with precise timing.
Campaign results:
- Event sold out in only three days
- Surpassed registrations target of 200 by 240% with an astounding 480 registrations
- 336 people joined the waiting list in six weeks
- Diverse audience of participants including consultants, academics, students, tourism professionals, policy makers, destination management and regenerative development practitioners
- 38 countries represented
- 164 pages of audience commentary was submitted by attendees during the two-day event including questions and contributions
- Overall attendee satisfaction rate of 4.8 out of 5 from surveyed participants
Key services we provided:
- Brand development
- Event marketing strategy
- Digital marketing strategy
- Digital content development
- Copywriting
- Graphic design
- Project management
Project duration: Four months
“The Virtual Summit was by far the largest event that the Tourism CoLab has curated. I had spent a year or so thinking about it, but felt we lacked the capacity for such an ambitious project. Working with Mankind Digital gave me the confidence to program it in, get it started, and make it happen. The Summit was a huge success, not only in terms of participation, but also in generating interest in the CoLab’s learning opportunities. We also received hundreds of emails congratulating the team and beautiful heartfelt reflections on the personal and professional value of the event. We could not have done it without Keeley and the team at MindKind Digital.”
Dianne Dredge
DIRECTOR, THE TOURISM COLAB
Partner for progress with Mankind Digital
The success of the Regenerative Tourism by Design Virtual Summit 2024 shines a light on our knowledge and expertise in effectively promoting regenerative tourism, content development and event marketing strategy. Our collaboration with The Tourism CoLab proves that customised solutions spark engagement, nurture community and achieve tangible results that can go on to surpass expectations.
Discover how Mankind Digital can support you with your next event marketing campaign strategy, and let us help you transform your project into a triumph. Get in touch with us today.
