Going social results in record web traffic and sales
During recent weeks, ‘the world’s most beautiful sea voyage’ has been subject to the world’s longest live documentary. Streamed live on the web between 16-23 June by the NRK, it is estimated that 3 out of 4 Norwegians (3 million) viewed the broadcast and has been viewed online across the globe from Congo and Sudan to Mexico, Indonesia and Cambodia.
During the mammoth event, Hurtigruten engaged in social media and the results gave us record web traffic and sales results. Our average web traffic rose from 17,000 views per day to over 75,000 views whereas sales increased by 200% during the broadcasting period. This is partly due to:
- Hurtigruten live stream page
- 24/7 Twitter coverage
- Facebook event
- Continuous engagement in all customer service channels
We also took a strategic approach on Twitter by “following” travel journalists across the globe. This lead to articles being picked up by CNN, Yahoo news, MSNBC and Reuters as well as the entertainment website Variety and tech website Wired.
You can read more about our web-marketing activity Here
The live broadcast was an immense success and the coverage gained for Hurtigruten was originally estimated to be worth over 8 million NOK in marketing (I now see that figure closer to 80 million NOK). However, the most important factor is that every single Hurtigruten employee is now proud, and with morale being high the company is motivated once again, and that is something we cannot put a price on.
Take a look: http://blog.texifter.com/index.php/2011/07/29/hurtigruten-a-norwegian-social-media-phenomenon/
Thanks Josh,
I saw this link posted on Twitter yesterday. Good read and a very interesting conclusion. Of course the biggest reason for record sales was the broadcast itself but other than the web and email marketing, our focus was purely in the live updates from Facebook and Twitter, In fact, of those 30,000 mentions, I wonder how many came from Hurtigruten and NRK ourselves?
Interesting never the less, and something that we can never replicate again. It sure was a lot of fun though