"The ride of a lifetime" is already the most successful ST campaign
With "The ride of a lifetime" with Roger Federer and Trevor Noah, Switzerland Tourism ST has achieved the most successful marketing campaign in its history. The video counted over 82 million views on Wednesday. The Swiss Travel Pass STP recorded a 59 percent increase in sales.
Played out was the current ST campaign worldwide, with a focus on the source markets USA, India, Korea, Southeast Asia, Greater China, the United Kingdom and Germany. Switzerland and its "Grand Train Tour of Switzerland," which is best experienced with the STP, were promoted. This acts as a vacation general season ticket on the Swiss public transport network for international guests.
The sales figures reflected the campaign focus: The top 3 best-selling markets are the USA, followed by India and finally Korea. Although the success of the previous year could not yet be matched in terms of YouTube views in the first two months - the video "No one upstages the Grand Tour of Switzerland"generated 102 million views within one year -, the Chief Marketing Officer of ST and "Advertiser of the Year" 2023, André Hefti, satisfied: "Through strong storytelling, we managed to get people to watch almost four minutes of pictures of our beautiful Switzerland. That's world class!" The film met with overwhelming feedback both nationally and internationally: 99 percent of the comments are positive.
Platform specific storyline
A new feature of the campaign was the platform-specific, customized storyline on TikTok. It drew attention to the topic of rail travel in a humorous way. Wirz, under the direction of Livio Dainese, CO-CEO and "Advertiser of the Year" 2018, was responsible for the campaign idea with ambassador Roger Federer for the third time. The social media measures were flanked by a competition at international level. Participants could win a trip to Switzerland and a trip on the "Grand Train Tour of Switzerland. According to ST, the competition generated six-figure leads.
Sir Mary orchestrated the distribution of the campaign. The third film with Roger Federer was a new venture with the unconventional approach of distributing the clip only on YouTube - the only platform on which the film could be seen in its entire length.
"We are very pleased with how the campaign has gone. The fact that Switzerland is not only the country with incomparable nature and culture in the smallest space, but also offers modern and sustainable travel options, strikes a chord with our guests. Our campaign does this in an entertaining way - and very successfully," says ST Director Martin Nydegger.
