The challenge was to build awareness for the the launch of the new Dusit Thani Maldives property, using only social media as a key medium. As an experiment and because of budgetary constraints, it was decided that literally no media budget ($0) was going to be allocated to the campaign and we would only use Dusit International’s social media channels (existing and new) and existing methods of spreading information such as #hashtags. Campaign management was handled by Dusit and Syndacast staff members.
Planning & Execution
Syndacast developed a campaign built around virality, using Pinterest as the focus social media channel as this was the newest and hottest channel of 2012, while ensuring coverage on supporting channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr. To build interest for the campaign, a “5 nights stay for 2 at Dusit Thani Maldives” prize was offered to the target customers (travelers, beach lovers and Maldives lovers) and the campaign was given the catchy name “Dusit Dream Holiday”. The hashtag #DusitDreamHoliday originated here, and the strategy was to distribute this hashtag as widely as possible across social media channels to build interest and intrigue around the campaign. As awareness for Dusit International was also low compared to other hotel brands, this #hashtag also allowed for wide distribution of the Dusit brand name.
Effectiveness / Results
342 entry photos were collected featuring the #DusitDreamHoliday hashtag. The weekly top 3 were selected onto the next round, having generated a total number of Pinterest interactions of 910. Because of lack of analytics of all the channels except Facebook, no engagement data was able to be collected, however Dusit International’s Facebook’s PTAT (people talking about this) grew by 400% during the campaign period. Overall, this campaign generated a good level of buzz for the $0 media spend that was allocated to it.