Macao on the south coast of China is a stunning, small city loved by many.
The special administrative region has been known around the world as the “Las Vegas of Asia”, with its economy heavily revolving around tourism.
And it’s hugely successful, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors every year from China, Hong Kong and beyond.
But the richness of Macao actually extends a lot further to its blended culture, vibrancy and beauty.
It’s a former Portuguese colony that offers visitors various outdoor activities, world-class luxury resorts, a pioneering dining scene, as well as remarkable history and architecture.
Seeing really is believing.
Which presented the Macao Government Tourism Office with a significant challenge.
How could they shift the popular perception of Macao away from its Las Vegas comparison and reposition it as a diverse, all-rounded destination suitable for different traveller profiles?
Added to this, they want to also cement the city’s reputation as Asia’s creative space, that captivates and inspires creatives.
This tall ambition required a global campaign that touched a broad cross section of travellers, specifically family travellers, luxury travellers, as well as travellers with interest/affinity in dining, shopping and entertainment.
If successful, we would drive awareness, interest and travel consideration for Macao, elevating the city’s market presence and promoting its various travel products.
The challenge was on!
Idea/Strategy
Introducing “More Than Meets Macao”, a campaign that invited travelers to embark on an adventure to uncover the hidden and unexpected wonders of Macao, from mouth-watering cuisine to breathtaking sights and sounds, as travelers discover the true city's essence.
We achieved this by showcasing diverse perspectives on Macao's offerings, aligning between both Macao’s objectives and Tripadvisor’s unique travel insights.
To bring our idea to life, we developed a world-first strategy through a strategic collaboration with Warner Music.
Knowing travelers’ passion for music is unlike other demographics, we delivered the content craved by our audience through the medium they're most receptive to.
This ground-breaking approach also dovetailed with Macao’s ambition to position the city as Asia’s creative hub.
To support this, we also reached out to travelers across various touch points to help Macao be top of mind. We did this by leveraging immersive and authentic storytelling formats, natively integrating into the Tripadvisor platforms, such as social, editorial and digital media.
We worked with five content creators with strong local followings who lent their personal style to deliver bespoke content based on that market or region’s passion points.
To complete the journey from planning to booking, we leveraged our Tripadvisor travel booking platform, Viator, to offer an exclusive 15% discount on Macao experiences during the campaign period.
Importantly, this was a truly global campaign covering 13 markets - US, UK, Australia, Middle East, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea - and seven languages to ensure we reached the broadest possible travel audience.
Execution
Tripadvisor joined forces with Warner Music, working with Singaporean rapper J.M3 to create a bespoke track for Macao, ‘You Make Me Feel’.
We sent J.M3 on a trip to Macao, where her journey and highlights became the creative muse for her track, as she writes about how Macao inspires her and makes her feel.
This was complimented by a 360-degree content program on Tripadvsior to inspire and educate travelers through amazing Macao experiences. From social, editorial to digital media, we made the destination unmissable.
For example, we collaborated with five content creators to deliver diverse and authentic storytelling across six branded articles and four branded trip guides.
Tapping into the unique expertise that each creator brings to the table, we challenged them to come up with unique Macao itineraries, sharing Macao through the lens of luxury travel, history/culture, food, wellness and more via social content with branded editorial content.
The outputs included Branded Articles around the themes of: Luxury beyond limits in Macao, Unveiling Macao’s vibrant soul through its hidden gems, Revitalize yourself on a wellness retreat in Macao and Rediscovering Macao, where the past lives on.
These creative formats were then paired with the Branded Trip Guide, where we curated interactive map experiences that lived on Tripadvisor to highlight places to eat/play/stay in Macao, on top of a curated Brand Channel on the Tripadvisor Macao Tourism page, which helped us to seamlessly integrate our campaign content into the Tripadvisor ecosystem natively.
The outcomes of our campaign have set Macao on a journey that will completely reinvent how the city is perceived by travelers.
Our industry-defining collaboration with Warner Music saw our bespoke track achieve more than 100,000 Spotify streams, and led to viral TikTok content from J.M3 herself that, to date, has garnered more than 2.6M views (total play time exceeded 3,608 hours).
The press went wild for our work, with the campaign featured in the likes of Bandwagon, The Straits Times, Music Ally, The Beat, and more.
Our Tripadvisor-produced music artist interview reels had engagement rates (13.3%) two times higher than benchmark (5-8%) on paid social, and led to more than 52,000 clicks to the Macao hub. There were more than 12,000 organic engagements with our creator content, which shows the impact our approach had on our target audience.
As well, the Macao Tourism Brand Channel garnered an outstanding 25% engagement rate (5x our average benchmark), and the Branded Articles on Tripadvisor had engagement rates that peaked at 25%
Most importantly, the campaign successfully boosted overall engagement and put Macao on the map as a desirable destination. Macao internet searches increased 286% YOY and bookings to Macao increased 10x during the campaign.
We proved there was more than meets the eye in Macao.