Overseas marketing and advertising

This year the MTA has carried out a very intensive advertising campaign, including, for the first time, TV campaigns in 5 core markets (as opposed to UK only, as in previous years) – The UK, Germany, Italy, France, The Netherlands. Moreover, the bulk of our advertising campaigns customarily end in May, by when most people have planned their summer vacations. This year, due to the last-minute booking phenomenon and the dire international economic climate, our advertising campaigns shall continue throughout the summer in most of our core source markets. Below is a list of examples of some of the main advertising initiatives, by market, for the summer months.

In recent weeks, the MTA's communications and PR division provided the local media especially the Malta Today newspaper with a detailed breakdown of the overseas marketing and advertising activates being carried out by the Authority, highlighting the period May to July.

The information provided is being carried here under.

Advertising

Britain

Apart from our regular TV advertising campaign on various UK channels between December and May, this year there was an additional TV campaign launched in the UK for June and July. Channels include Channel 4, 5, ITV, Sky TV Channels (incl. Living, Comedy Central etc.)

We are carrying on with Print advertising on a wide mix of national and regional papers. In fact we have just confirmed an extra 4 week campaign across the UK print media in July and August.

Regional outdoor campaigns on taxis, and other mediums, during May (Ex. Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester).

Advertising campaign in magazines targeting niches.

Strong online campaign on travel and non-travel sites.

Regional radio advertising.

Joint advertising with tour operators.

Germany

National TV campaign in April and May. In a test carried out by IMAS, a German-based market research institute, the Malta promotional spot was voted the second most effective TV commercial to be broadcast in Germany during the first half of this year..

A joint campaign with FTI on Sonneklar TV and Tele5 in June to August – very high frequencies.

Outdoor advertising on buses in all major German cities, April - June.

Summer joint outdoor advertising campaign with FTI.

Online advertising campaigns to continue throughout summer - use of both travel and as well non-travel sites (eg. news, weather etc.).

Print advertising continued till the end of June in regional German newspapers.

France

Outdoor adverts on over 1100 locations in Paris and Lyon during July and August.

Online advertising throughout Summer on sites such as Opodo and Promovacances.

Print advertising on specialized national media.

Italy

Outdoor advertising in Bologna, Milan and Rome – over 360 buses for one month and over 500 posters in, for example, the metro stations.

Specialized print advertising on national media May/June in, for example, Il Corriere and Viaggi della Repubblica.

Radio advertising in Verona in May and on In Blu network (national) in July.

Various online campaigns in May to July in, e.g. Edreams, Volagratis and Lastminute.

Spain

1 mega billboard for a month in Barcelona (15 X 20 metres) plus another 600 posters in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.

National and regional print advertising in May and June, in e.g. Marca, Levante and El Periodico.

Online campaign on leading Spanish websites, e.g. Minube.

Benelux

National print advertising in May.

TV campaign in co-operation with tour main operator in June.

Online promotions.

Scandinavia

Advertising on national newspapers in May/June.

Bus campaign in Denmark.

Russia.

Online and print advertising campaigns continuing throughout summer.

Switzerland.

Print advertising campaign May to August.

Online advertising, e.g. Travel.ch.

Direct mailing campaigns in May.

Other initiatives

Promotional E-mailings to over 500,000 new contacts in UK, Germany, Italy, France and Benelux in July.

Product launch of Nintendo Wii ‘Sports Resort’ in Gozo with 25 overseas journalists. Joint marketing activity with Nintendo to continue in coming months..

The MTA continued with its strong PR campaign, bringing over journalists and TV crews to Malta and Gozo. This resulted in a regular presence of our islands on the media in all the markets. Unlike previous years, the MTA is continuing with its PR campaigns in the height of summer, bringing over journalists in July and August too. Air Malta and various hotels in Malta and Gozo are to be thanked in this respect for the excellent co-operation offered.

The Isle of MTV event in July was heavily promoted in all our core markets, and through all the MTV Europe Network channels for months in advance. Through these promotional initiatives some 20 foreign journalists were brought over to cover the event. A significantly large number of tourists also attended the event itself.

The MTA also continued with various joint promotions with tour operators and airlines across our main markets.

In May 1000 German travel agents were brought over to Malta for a ‘Mega Fam Trip’ by FTI, in collaboration with the MTA, Air Malta and various hotel and service providers. Other similar initiatives, albeit on a smaller scale, were also carried out with tour operators from various markets.

The MICE (Meetings Incentives Conferences Events) sector was the hardest hit tourism sector internationally. Besides the obvious negative economic impact that the recession or credit crunch had on companies across the globe – severely curtailing travel and conference budgets – there was also the PR element to contend with. Most companies would find it very hard to justify overseas junkets whilst share prices plummet and staff laid off. In an effort to increase MICE-related promotion for the Maltese islands in these challenging times, the MTA undertook a number of initiatives in this regard, including:

• The successful participation in the key MICE fairs: EIBTM (Barcelona), CONFEX (London) and IMEX (Frankfurt).

• Earlier this year the MTA has employed the services of two sales and marketing executives in Italy and France specifically to promote MICE business for the Maltese islands.

• The MTA’s overseas network also put strong emphasis on promoting MICE in Malta through direct contact and meetings with MICE buyers and travel managers in all our core source markets.

• The MTA also organized and participated in a number of MICE promotional initiatives such as ‘Shock The Monkey’ in Milan and ‘A Taste of Malta’ in the UK (London). Similar initiatives are being planned in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, amongst others, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Maltese embassies in the respective countries.

• The MTA has supported various familiarization visits for MICE buyers and also offered financial assistance to Quality-Assured Maltese Destination Management Companies going on sales trips overseas.

• A good number of MICE-specialist journalists have also been brought over to write about our islands’ attractions and venues.

• In recent months the MTA has continued to launch a joint advertising campaign overseas with 4**** and 5***** hotels in Malta and Gozo, in a bid to promote the hotels’ meetings and incentives offer.

• A MICE publication specific to Gozo, the Gozo Mini Guide, was launched by the MTA in May (at the IMEX fair in Frankfurt), promoting the services on offer on our sister island.

With regards to predictions… It is still too early to give a credible forecast for Winter 2009/2010. The trend for late bookings continues to grow steadily, thus making it even more difficult to forecast figures realistically. Moreover one needs to take into consideration that the first six months of 2009 are being compared to the same period in 2008, which was the best ever half-year period registered for Malta’s tourism industry. The latter part of 2009 will be compared to same period in 2008 wherein the international economic climate was already having a direct effect on incoming tourism numbers

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Moreover, a letter to the Editor of MaltaToday was also sent. The letter was carried in the 19th July edition in reply to a columnist's comments about the MTA's advertising efforts. The letter in question is also being reproduced here under:

The Editor
Malta Today
San Gwann

Sir,

I refer to Claudine Cassar's opinion piece in last Sunday's MALTA TODAY, entitled "Tourism in the doldrums". In this regard I would like to clarify some of the issues raised by your columnist and, perhaps, put matters into their correct perspective.

For 2009 the Malta Tourism Authority's budget was increased by more than 15% over the previous year's. However, in the current international economic climate, every other tourism destination is likewise committing more resources towards marketing and advertising. But this has always been Malta's lot anyway: Attempting to stand out in a marketplace already saturated with advertising messages. Needless to say, the other tourism-dependent countries being referred to by your correspondent have advertising and marketing budgets that are considerably higher than what Malta’s is or could ever be. In this respect the comparisons are obviously not ‘like with like’.

In this highly competitive environment, the MTA's efforts have been geared towards using the resources at our disposal more intelligently and incisively rather than just adding another small voice to the already deafening advertising cacophony.

To this end the Malta Tourism Authority has striven to maximize the impact, effectiveness and longevity of every Euro spent on advertising and marketing. Aome of the measures taken by the MTA in this respect include:

TV advertising in FIVE core markets - The UK, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands - an absolute first for Malta. The UK TV advertising campaign has also been extended into June and July, whereas in previous years the TV campaign would end in May. Moreover, the new TV adverts being broadcast were produced by the world renowned National Geographic channel and have received remarkably positive feedback from all and sundry, overseas and even locally. In each market we have targeted a mix of TV channels to hit the widest possible spectrum of the population - eg. Canale 5, Sky, Channel 4, Pro7, ITV, France 2, N-TV, Living and others.

E-marketing in all of our core source markets, including a strong presence in tourism and non-tourism platforms (eg. news sites, weather portals etc.). Malta was one of the forerunners in this regard, being the first NTO (national tourism organization) to promote its destination on E-booking giant Expedia.com. It was precisely for this reason that the management of Expedia had hailed Malta and the MTA as "E-pioneers".

The MTA has also embarked upon a campaign to enlist celebrity endorsers for the various markets, with popular TV presenter Nina Ruge and celebrity chef Rainer Mitze in Germany and Maltese 'export' Kevin Borg in Sweden. Other celebrity endorsers are set to follow in our other core markets.

As from the 2008/2009 UK football season, Malta also began to sponsor (through www.visitmalta.com) UK Championship squad Sheffield United. The impact that this sponsorship has had in the region (Sheffield is the fourth largest city in the UK) and throughout the British isles has been significant, with a direct advertising and marketing value in excess of one and a half million pounds Sterling for the first season (2008/09).

The Isle of MTV event has also been generating much interest across Europe and the MTA has been very pro-active in marketing the event well in advance across all our markets. In September the Isle of MTV Malta Special is broadcast repeatedly across all of the MTV Europe network channels whilst destination Malta advertising campaigns run across the network in different periods throughout the year. The high tourist turnout at this year's Isle of MTV event is a good indicator that the promotion is paying off.

Other than that, and in an effort to be concise, the MTA has also embarked upon:

• Massive print campaigns in all markets - on daily newspapers, magazines - all campaigns being sales driven with a 'call to action'

• Outdoor advertising campaigns - large billboards, building hoardings in city centres, tram-siding and bus-siding adverts, taxi-wraps, city-lights boards, poster campaigns in underground stations and various other outdoor advertising initiatives.

• A PR programme throughout the year that brings over to Malta some 700+ journalists and TV Crews to cover different facets of Malta and Gozo for top-notch newspapers, magazines and TV stations around Europe.

• Various interviews in all core source markets carried out throughout the year with MTA overseas staff and PR representatives. on TV shows, radio programmes, newspapers, magazines, websites etc.

• A strong promotional presence in 70 trade and consumer events and exhibitions together with roadshows and workshops in collaboration with tour operators, airlines and airports.

• A series of joint advertising campaigns with trade partners.

• Supporting travel agents' familiarization visits (eg. the FTI 'mega fam trip' in May with 1000 German travel agents), providing travel agents' sales incentives and Malta & Gozo 'specialists' training programmes.

• Joint promotions with multinationals such as Nintendo (currently in Malta)

Naturally, the MTA does even more than all this, with a good number of other segment-specific initiatives and joint collaborations that carry on throughout the year. However, listing each and every marketing initiative undertaken by the Authority would require this newspaper's editor to give up several pages for that precise purpose. Nevertheless, should Ms. Cassar or anyone of your readers require more information about the ongoing work carried out by the MTA, one may simply send a blank e-mail to: info@visitmalta.com to subscribe to the Authority's INDUSTRY UPDATE E-Newsletter (www.mta-news.info).

Sincerely

Kd

Kevin J Drake
Director
Communications & PR
Malta Tourism Authority
Valletta
MALTA