Mexico Tourist Board
MMGY Global was appointed by the Mexico Tourist Board to revitalize the country’s tourism industry after the H1N1 virus had cut occupancy in commercial and resort destinations in excess of 50%. The goal was to motivate U.S. and Canadian travelers to, once again, consider Mexico as a vacation destination by creating and implementing a brand awareness campaign along with co-op advertising with some of the country’s most popular destinations, through an integrated channel marketing strategy. The campaign yielded an 6% increase in annual stopover arrivals (tourists) during each of the two years of implementation (despite the negative press coverage associated with the H1N1 virus, the prevailing economic problems in North America at that time, and increasing public concerns about safety of travel to Mexico). The campaign was also voted the “best national tourist board campaign” by the Association of Travel Editors in 2009/10.
Broadcast
By implementing a series of “media days,” MMGY was able to secure the desired level of media coverage at an average savings of >20% for both the Tourism Board and its destination partners. MMGY composed a comprehensive, over-arching media strategy that yielded a 30% premium in media weight at no increase in cost.
The campaign was executed in conjunction with the country’s major wholesaler/tour operator partners such as American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Liberty Travel and Apple Vacations, who all contributed financially to the effort. The result was over 400 of individual media plans for each destination, funded at over $50,000,000 (USD) in 2009/2010 in both offline and online media.