Good grief. It’s only been a few days since we discussed freebie travel trips for bloggers (here, here and here) and now word comes from Media Post (via Philippe) that Netherlands tourism has put together its first bloggers’ junket.
With help from the BlogAds network, they invited twenty five bloggers (a large group compared to most press trips) to kick back for five days in a five star hotel. Flights provided by KLM
According to MediaPost:
The bloggers must agree to be interviewed by the tourism board, and provide the board with free ad space on their blogs; the board will use that space to highlight the trip. Each ad unit will be customized for the site on which it is hosted, featuring the bloggers themselves, and linking directly to their interviews with the tourism boards.
But importantly:
The bloggers won’t be required to write any blog posts about the trip.
I said it was only a matter of time and full marks to the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions for actively engaging with the blogosphere. Sebastian Paauw, Internet manager for the tourism board, explains the promotion as a shift away from traditional media:
"We pretty much stopped with TV ads or radio ads or branded ads," he said. "It just wasn’t worth it anymore. Online, there are just many more possibilities."
Which is something we have been hearing a lot for a while now. Many tour operators have also been comparing newspaper editorial coverage unfavourably with classified ads.
I find BlogAds’ role in this really interesting. With regular press trips, the PR agency (or occasionally in-house team) will issue invitations to publications or individual journalists, according to influence and where they hope the coverage will run.
The blogosphere is different and comparatively new. Few travel PR’s, for example, have a list of influential bloggers tucked away in their database.
Instead, Netherlands tourism has commissioned BlogAds to pick the participating bloggers from within its own network. BlogAds is also managing the promotion’s Web site, BloggersinAmsterdam.com.
I will be glued to that over the next few weeks. It’s going to be fascinating to see how this pans out.
Will Netherlands tourism consider it money well spent? Will the hotels lay out a Welcome Bloggers mat or charge them a fortune for internet access?
On the subject of this type of junket, Steve Rubel suggested today:
I think they have a lot more potential than traditional media junkets to build buzz because you can do things with bloggers that the press would frown on.
I am not sure about that. I went on many different kinds press trips over seventeen years and plenty of things occurred which would be more likely to provoke the disapproval of the public than fellow hacks.
No. Ideally, the same principles should apply to both bloggers’ and press trips. Make it as easy as possible for them to experience your product – as if they were a carefree holidaymaker – then stand back and let them write about it.
But Steve is right to mention transparency. Any blogger worth his salt will tell the world, before he starts, that his trip was paid for by the tourist board or hotel. Very few travel pieces in the press today reveal when the journalist was on a junket.
I wondered before whether bloggers will be corrupted by free trips, airplane seats and five star hotels as this idea takes off.
So here’s the test. How long will it be before one of the Amsterdam bloggers starts acting like a big shot and demands an upgrade, superior canal view or a better bottle of wine at dinner?
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Good points. Yep, will be interesting to see how this pans out. So far it seems like lots of good ideas are being generated and people are enjoying themselves — bloggers and readers — so we’re happy with the trajectory to date.
Good points. Yep, will be interesting to see how this pans out. So far it seems like lots of good ideas are being generated and people are enjoying themselves — bloggers and readers — so we’re happy with the trajectory to date.
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