Needing a taxi cab in Paris? Tourists looking for a taxi in the French capital city may get a taste of the Seychelles and the Indian Ocean.
The Seychelles Tourism Board launched a branded taxi advertising campaign in the French capital of Paris and the German city of Frankfurt as part of its communication plan for the autumn-winter promotional season.
The campaign involved 200 taxis circulating day and night during the entire month of October and beginning November, transporting the branded visuals of the destination with the tag line “Seychelles, the call of the islands.”
“We opted for the October-November as it is the beginning of our promotional season and also because the western European cities tends to be grey and foggy during this period, hence the contrast impact of our visual depicting sunshine, warm and vivid colors which one could not go unnoticed even during the peak and rush hours,” said Bernadette Willemin, the Seychelles Tourism Board Director for Europe. She added the message was to remind the public that it is perpetual summer in the Seychelles islands and consequently the variety and diversity of tourism products and activities are also available year around.
This campaign complements other above-the-line campaigns which started since September and some still on-going throughout the month of October on the French market, continued Bernadette Willemin. The kick-off was a joint tactical billboard campaign in collaboration with island specialist, Tour Operator Exotismes, whereby 1,200 boards were displayed between September 19-25, mainly in the 15th district close to the train stations (Saint-Lazare, Montparnasse, etc.), and the Southern Tramway line, thus not only tapping into the consumer market segment but also the travel trade professionals as it coincided with the major French Travel Trade show IFTM. In addition, the billboards were also present in the 08th district, an area with a huge concentration of hotels without forgetting the business areas of Neuilly and Levallois.
Some 200 institutional radio spots were aired on Cherie FM Radio during the month of September-October before and after the weather forecast and traffic information as a follow up to a previous joint radio campaign on RTL Radio, and this jointly timed with the national airline Air Seychelles.
The destination was also present in 26 cinema halls in Paris and close suburbs. Altogether 6,100 television spots of 20 seconds each were screened during the second and third week of October.
Mrs. Sherin Francis, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, for her part stressed on the importance and the need to upscale consumer promotions, and enhance a communication plan to continue creating more demand. “We need to be more visible especially in our consumer targeted promotions whilst maintaining and increasing our business to business-oriented activities,” she concluded.
