Influencer marketing and brilliant storytelling go straight to the heart of Harz

The Harz Tourist Board (HTV), the tourism marketing organisation for the whole of the Harz region, intended, in partnership with suitable travel bloggers, to promote the destination as part of an online marketing campaign. The intention was to rejuvenate the image of the Harz region to make it more attractive to a younger target audience – whilst still being relevant to the main target group. A focus was placed on the following themes: active pastimes, nature, culinary art and culture. The intention was to use authentic brand ambassadors to communicate in a way appropriate to the target group in question.

First of all, the target group was defined in more detail during a workshop: above all, the generation Y and 50+ target group were the main focus. Three suitable travel bloggers were then identified. Main prerequisite: they had to get the themes across to the target group authentically and convincingly. Another criterion in selecting the bloggers was that they were able to demonstrate that they had a good reach in the defined mixture of channels comprising Instagram, Facebook and their own blog. And then the journey commenced: each blogger pursued a specified travel route which coincided with the interests of their followers as well as offering a good cross-section of representative “Harz experiences”. At the very heart of the campaign was a competition featured on the specifically designed landing page entitled “followyourharz.de”. The (campaign)hashtag #followyourharz was also linked to all the channels and initiatives – which steered the visitor to the competition page.

The three bloggers visited different parts of the region from August to late October 2019 and proved just how great and varied the Harz region is. Alongside cultural, urban and culinary highlights as well as the joys of nature, our bloggers also visited key regional representatives. Travelontoast (Anja Beckmann) visited Beekeeper André Koppelin , Quedlinburg mustard factory and Glass factory in Derenburg. Bravebird (Ute Kranz) learnt a lot about herbs and how they can be used Wild herb course with Mrs Schnibbe. Globusliebe (Julia Lassner) paid a visit to Sophienhof goat farm.

Ulrich Kronenberg from www.anderswohin.de also posted numerous articles about his journey through Harz on the social networks to reach another target audience, namely that in the 50+ age range.

And since the contributions were so good and successful, the campaign was extended. For instance, another blogger visited the Harz in the run-up to Christmas: Blackdotswhitespots (Susi Maier) took her followers on a trip to the fantastic Christmas markets in the Harz region and showed just how beautiful the region can be as a winter destination. Susi paid a visit to the “Advent in den Höfen” (20 historic inner courtyards during the Advent period), the Christmas market in Quedlinburg as well as the Christmas castle event in Schloss Blankenburg and the Christmas courtyard event in Halberstadt. So her followers really got into the Christmas spirit.

Followyourharz was a great success. This was confirmed by the impressive figures: almost 600,000 contacts had been reached, likes from more than 47,000 as well as over 2,700 shares and comments – more than 1,000 competition entries were recorded!

All photos except those taken on mobile phones are from Susi Maier.