The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has officially announced a collaboration between its USA offices and Gourmet Marketing (GM), the hospitality marketing agency affiliate of ELMNTL, to develop an integrated strategy and launch the tourism authority’s luxury marketing campaign in the U.S. TAT will serve as the primary coordinator for this campaign, while leveraging GM’s expertise in the digital marketing and technology spaces to effectively reach the right consumers. This luxury initiative will be part of a new overarching campaign, targeting culturally diverse luxury travelers whose tastes, needs, and expectations are evolving.
“Gourmet Marketing impressed the entire team with their accolades and experience working on several iconic luxury brands within the travel and hospitality space, earning several industry awards in digital marketing and web design,” said Charinya Kiatlapnachai, director for Tourism Authority of Thailand – New York. “The insights that the team brings to us will be important in helping Thailand navigate and engage the luxury audience, and I am very confident this campaign will be a success in reaching them.”
As part of this effort, TAT will be launching several initiatives in conjunction with GM to promote the campaign and establishing the framework for future communications within the luxury industry, including:
- Luxury Microsite: There are five categories visitors can explore, including hotels, spas and wellness, cuisine, luxury experiences, and travel packages. Confirmed travel partners that TAT secured include Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Peninsula, Anantara, 137 Pillars House Chiang Mai, 137 Pillars Suites and Residences Bangkok, Banyan Tree, Conrad Samui, Rosewood Phuket, Paresa Resort Phuket, Four Seasons, and more.
- Shopping Interactive Technology: As part of the campaign, TAT recommended leveraging Smartzer’s Interactive Shopping Technology on its digital video campaigns. Smartzer’s interactive video players allow for videos to become clickable for shopping. Consumers can click on items within a video to see further information and links to inquire about an offer. Smartzer’s clients include Valentino, Harvey Nichols, and now TAT will be one of the first tourism authorities to use this technology to position the destination within the luxury market.
- Full-scale digital display programmatic advertising campaign: GM created dedicated ads to promote each luxury category offer. The ads are distributed through digital channels using programmatic media buying to ensure optimal exposure for the campaign.
- Sponsored social media content: GM will also be creating content in the form of Instagram Stories, boosted posts, and utilizing Facebook’s Canvas ads and Twitter’s targeting tool to reach people watching specific shows in order to create a more engaging campaign in which consumers interact more with the content beyond a click.
The campaign officially kicks off this month, and New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago will be the first targeted DMAs.