When it comes to destination marketing, there are a lot of examples of places that stand out, as well as examples of place marketing that flops. So what works what it comes to place marketing? Let's consider a couple of cool ideas. Or some very cold ones, perhaps, from the frozen north.
How can you market a frozen northern city? Perhaps an Ice Hotel?
Make something cold, cool
Getting people to visit a destination that lies above the Arctic Circle in the middle of winter and then pay a premium price for the privilege has to be seen as a truly great marketing achievement. But that’s exactly what The Ice Hotel in northern Sweden has achieved. In 1992 an ice seminar was organised by Yngve Bergqvist, who was looking at ways to improve tourism in his home town of Jukkasjärvi, which lies around 17 kilometers from Kiruna in northern Sweden.
An igloo of some 60 m2 containing ice sculptures was built to house the event. Unfortunately accommodation at the hotel Yngve managed had run out and so some hardy individuals agreed to spend the night in the igloo. They slept on top of reindeer skins in sleeping bags and the next morning, by way of compensation I should imagine, were given certificates to prove they had done so.
Luleå university; Great Ideas Grow Better Below Zero.
A cool university
Similarly Luleå University, which is around 350 kilometers south of the Ice Hotel, has also used their seemingly remote and frozen geographic location to stand out from the crowd. The university has created some impressive marketing ideas and used them to great effect.
The these ideas are taken from the book, Wish You Were Here - The Branding of Stockholm and Places, by Julian Stubbs. It covers place branding specifically, and also branding in general.
To get a free chapter of WISH YOU WERE HERE, click below.
