Circa 39 is a boutique hotel in Miami Beach's thriving mid-Beach neighborhood. The property completed a full renovation and rebranding in early 2015, and is positioned as "a happy home for explorers at heart." For the "Vloggers & Vagabonds" project, agency collaborated with property to host five travel video bloggers (vloggers) to each capture one of five neighborhoods around Miami, while organically featuring the hotel and its amenities as home base.
Among the objectives of the "Vloggers & Vagabonds" project, the production of these videos were to:
1) generate original, engaging content that showcased the newly renovated property and its positioning as a jumping off point to discovering Miami's authentic cultural heritage neighborhoods;
2) generate content that is easily shared on a variety of social networks;
3) draw attention to the hotel's newly launched social pages;
4) create timeless content that can be viewed and shared indefinitely, increasing the reach and media value of the campaign.
Video is more than ever an essential means of communication and a preferred resource for information, with YouTube standing as the second largest search engine after Google. With video being the most effective way to engage this new generation of media consumers, it's also the best way to showcase a hotel or destination.
On behalf of Circa 39, Diamond Public Relations (DPR) scouted five of the top influential vloggers, targeting them by the size of their following and their particular / unique approach to producing travel videos to ensure that a wide demographic would be exposed to the content produced through the campaign. Vloggers were to travel to Miami Beach and stay at Circa 39 for four nights, during which they would each shoot, star and produce an original video that showcased Circa 39 as a jumping off point to explore Miami's authentic neighborhoods.
The trip took place in December 2015, in order to simultaneously promote Circa 39 as a warm weather destination via social media and the vlogs.
To select the neighborhoods, agency partnered with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitor's Bureau to determine the areas that best showcase Miami's melting pot of cultures -- Little Havana, Wynwood, Little Haiti, Mid / North Beach and South Beach. Together with the GMCVB, agency appointment one ambassador from each neighborhood to advise and guide vloggers on their respective neighborhood's highlights and hidden gems.
Vloggers were given two and a half days and a per diem to explore the neighborhoods on their own and capture their experience on video, while showcasing the hotel as home base. Once all the content was gathered, vloggers were given a full day to edit and finalize their videos, all of which were debuted at an intimate screening in the property's courtyard. The screening was attended by the ambassadors and local media, with judge's choice and viewer's choice awards announced at the end of the night.
Upon completion of the trip, each vlogger uploaded their videos to their blogs, partner websites and social media channels. The property was also given finalized video files to use for marketing purposes. For example, in Q1 2016, Circa 39 developed a "Miami Flavorhoods" package, which includes a food tour to the traveler's choice of neighborhood, for which the videos are actively being used as a tool to help market the package.
Upon completion of the trip, five videos were produced by the vloggers on behalf of Circa 39 Hotel, amounting in a combined approximate production value of $83,000. Agency based the approximate production value of each video on the average market value for a comparable project, also taking into account the length of the video.
From a production standpoint, the ROI is 1,177% (taking into account the hard costs involved for the property -- flights and the per diem allowance).
Following the trip, the vloggers promoted their videos across their blogs, YouTube channels and social media platforms. Outlets include AOL.com, Courtney Scott TV, Tourist2Townie, TravelistaTeri.com, TripFilms.com, among others.
Within two months of being uploaded, the videos have earned 500,000 consumer impressions with a total media value of $117,000. Because videos live on the web and can be viewed indefinitely, these numbers will naturally continue to yield an increase in ROI.
From a media value standpoint, the ROI is 1,198%.
From a social media standpoint, the social activity during and after the trip reached an engaged audience of over 65,000.
Moving forward, the property will have these videos as original content to promote Circa 39; they are presently leveraging the videos to promote a new "Miami Flavorhoods" package, which offers authentic eats throughout Miami's neighborhoods. Because agency partnered with the local tourism board to promote the destination, the videos will also be promoted by the GMCVB, amplifying their influence.
