Online catalogs expand reader scope

With revenue from tourism in Sweden exceeding the value of car exports, marketing the country is getting more important. But the mission is a complex task involving many different parties of interest and target groups.

VisitSweden is marketing intensively to attract foreign tourists to the country. Their well-defined strategy includes a clear focus on online marketing, with the award-winning website www.visitsweden.com as the spearhead. This season Zmags have been used to present VisitSweden’s travel catalogs online, improving the organization’s website and collateral integration.

“We chose Zmags because it is visually superior,” says David Bustos, project manager for VisitSweden. “Zmags’ search features and the ability to build links into the catalogs were also important points for us during the evaluation phase. Enriched collateral allows us to integrate our core website and our partners’ sites. But most importantly, our Zmags catalogs load quickly and meet the requirements of our visitors.”

Supports fine-grained marketing strategy

VisitSweden has a fine-grained communications strategy and is working with four main target segments with very different travel patterns. Each target segment requires segmented different approach, as the collateral reflects. The flexibility of Zmags Publicator makes collateral management easier while giving valuable feedback.

“Readerships analytics provide a great tool for us to use to develop products and collateral,” Bustos explains. “We can make direct comparisons between our catalogs to see if the artwork appeals to the target group, for example.”

With lots of different areas to cover, VisitSweden’s flagship "Sweden holiday guide" is printed in 715,000 copies and distributed in nine markets. The organization’s goal is to share the message with as many prospective visitors as possible, especially by focusing on increased online collateral distribution. Promoting the catalog via banners and adding multiple shortcuts on visitsweden.com are core elements of their integrated marketing campaign targeting more online readers.

Extended reader scope

After using Zmags for one season the results show close to 10,000 monthly visitors. Most importantly, the interactive collateral has reached visitors in 124 countries, widely expanding the scope of potential readers. VisitSweden is closely following the figures, which also show a positive impact on overall website traffic on visitsweden.com as well as on partner sites.

About VisitSweden

VisitSweden is a marketing and communications company whose goal is to promote Sweden as a travel and tourism destination and to market the Sweden brand. VisitSweden contributes to the improved profitability of the Swedish travel and tourism industry and to increased revenue and wealth for Sweden as a whole. VisitSweden is owned jointly by the Swedish state and Swedish tourism industry. Swedish tourism is responsible for 2.81 percent of GNP, has a turnover of 236 billion SEK and employs 160,000 people. The export value of the industry is 87.6 billion SEK.