Posts Tagged ‘case study’
If you are thinking ‘holiday accommodation where?’ you are probably not alone. We’ve just launched a small site for one of our clients in Portugal to support the accommodation side of their business. Built on WordPress it utilises the same custom template and resources their larger site is built on. Not only was this a very cost effective way of doing it but it also means the site retains the look and feel of the main Alentejo Adventures site. We worked with the online reservations site www.booking.com to set up online availability and reservations and integrated this functionality on the new site. Portuguese version coming soon.
Fair enough. But where is the Alentejo again? The opening paragraph in the Lonely Planet guide goes something like this and in my opinion like most of the stuff you read in their guides is pretty bang on.
Alentejo is like Portuguese fado music – ultra traditional, intriguingly diverse and lingeringly sentimental. Covering one-third of the country, Portugal’s largest region is bewitching, with its dry, golden plains, rolling hillsides and lime-green vines, rugged coastline, tiny whitewashed villages and majestic medieval cities. Its people are fiercely proud, yet somewhat melancholic.
So what’s the problem? Bottom line is, certainly in the UK, a whole lot more people are searching for holidays in the Algarve rather than holidays in the Alentejo. The difference in the volume of searches is startling – for some keyphrases the Algarve equivalent drives over a thousand times more volume than the Alentejo equivalent. There lies the next challenge and one that you can help crack if you can get the national tourism organisation working with the regional tourism organisation and both working with the businesses on the ground. You can probably guess where we are going with this so watch this space!
Tags: case study, tourism marketing, website
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You know what it’s like. You go to a conference and you return to work upbeat and enthused about what is possible, all the really interesting things you’ve been talking about and how this is going to make a real difference in your organisation. There comes the interesting bit – your organisation – and how to actually make things happen in a ‘real organisation’ with all that entails. Including the stuff that seems to stand in your way.
Earlier in the year I presented the closing session at the annual IDM/DMA West Digital Marketing Conference. Following the key note ‘The Digital Landscape 2009’ we heard from a range of expert practitioners across search, email, mobile and display. My session, based on a case study covering our work with Visit Wales dealt with some of the more practical lessons learnt – the ones we learnt while making digital happen in a real organisation. Here are some of the big ones.
- When you are kicking off something new keep a low profile. Ironically big budgets can sometimes work against you. Test and learn. Build your case and present the facts.
- Doing digital well is still fundamentally about people and being smart rather than technology or media spend. Your team, internal and external, are always going to be your biggest asset.
- Ensure everyone is working to their strengths. Focus on what you do best and work with others who are doing the same. Yourself, your team, your agencies and suppliers.
- New models require new ways of working. Managing digital is as much about managing change as it is about managing digital. You need to plan for that change.
- Ideas rule. But don’t be seduced by ideas. You agency knows how to help you develop your business, but remember – you know your business best. Be challenged but trust your instincts.
- If you head up digital be prepared to spend some serious time influencing those above you. Your challenge is to fill that gap between what your team know and what those above know.
- Keep it simple – never underestimate the power of the fag packet diagram or the lift shaft summary. But let those above see all the numbers – they will ask silly, difficult and important questions.
- The list of things to do will never stop getting longer. The way you prioritise that list is critical to your success. Beware the opportunity cost.
- Don’t let anybody tell you any different. We are all still learning.
- I’ll let you know …
You can check out the slides I used to illustrate the stuff I mentioned above;
Tags: case study, digital marketing, organisational change, project management
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