Do you know that there is an International Club of Cool Cities, which brings together tourism destinations such as New York, London, Paris, Venice, Shanghai, Munich, and others? What attributes should a city have to be considered cool? If this club really existed, which cities would you choose to join it?
“Club of Cool Cities” promotes Munich in a creative way, creating the illusion of the existence of a club that brings together the cool cities in the world. With a simple metaphor, the promotional video made cities to be humans that hang out at the “International Club of Cool Cities” and enjoy their time together. Without using a single image of the city, the video promotes Munich as a destination simply irresistible, inspiring, fascinating, innovative, wild, cool, and much more.
Behind the campaign is something widely used in the marketing field - the Brand Personality, the process of attributing human traits and characteristics to a specific brand to better appeal to and resonate with its intended audience.
As we can see in the video, the Brand Personality brings brands to life and is also a great source of differentiation. Munich's personality is remarkable, making it stand out in front of other cool cities without making any effort, just being itself. The other characters of the promotional video are also defined by the most striking features and the imagery that surrounds the tourism destinations.
The challenge for the city of Munich was clear: “We wanted to have some video content that is different from the common promotional content. It should tell a story, but also dare to go beyond stereotypes both about commercial videos and about Munich.” said Rupert Geiger, from Munich Tourism.
The film is a great example of how the travel video marketing industry is innovating. After all, tourism is an extremely competitive market and destinations need out of the box strategies to differentiate themselves and attract the attention of visitors.
At the Grand Prix CIFFT Circuit 2020, a competition that brings together the World's Best Tourism Film Festivals, the video received international awards in The Golden City Gate (ITB), Istanbul Tourism Film Festival, US International Film & Video Festival, Silafest, Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards and Amorgos Tourism Film Festival.
Do you want to know more about the strategy of this creative campaign? Read the interviews with Rupert Geiger, from Munich Tourism, and Danilo Pejakovic & Fabian Carl, from Sova Pictures, the producer company of the “Club of Cool Cities”.
Watch now “Club of Cool Cities”
The creative process behind “Club of Cool Cities”
Interview with Rupert Geiger, from Munich Tourism
- What's the purpose of the video?
The main purpose for us is to draw the interest of a target group that usually is not conscious of how much the destination offers.
- What is the key message of Club of Cool Cities?
The key message is, that Munich is cool, but does not want and need to show.
- What emotion are we trying to evoke?
Sympathy: with the underdog, who finally succeeds, but also sympathy with the successful, who has a hard time not being in the center of attention
Interview with Danilo Pejakovic & Fabian Carl, from Sova Pictures
- How was the production process of Club of Cool Cities?
First of all, it was a lot of fun. We had a great laugh while drafting the script for the spot. We tried to figure out some difficulties regarding the regional stereotypes shown in the video because we didn’t mean to offend anyone. The rest of the production was pretty straight forward. Two shooting days, a crew of about 30 people and around 15 extras, and the main cast of 5 people. Large for a film school project, but tiny compared to a proper commercial shoot.
- What's the purpose of the video?
To spread a positive vibe about Munich and show that anyone’s welcome here.
- What were the goals for the Club of Cool Cities? In your opinion, did you reach them?
We think we created a neat and positive commercial. Within the given time and budget we are super happy we the outcome. Of course, there is always something that we, as the creators, would like to change afterward but that should stay our secret and the audience has to decide if they like our work or not.
- What would you say is the key to good storytelling to promote the assets and attractions of a tourism destination using Video?
To look at what has been done before in that domain, and to think how to do it slightly differently. A very common approach is having lots of beautiful aerial shots and an enthusiastic narrator telling us that we have to come to visit the city being promoted. I like commercials more, where you almost don’t see the product until the deep connection is revealed that connects the product with the story.
- Consumers see in the videos that tourist destinations bring them content with a clearer personality. Do you think the video is more effective in reaching people than traditional advertising?
In our modern times, hardly anyone takes the time to actually read an advertisement. Promotional videos get their message across way faster and can also have a far bigger emotional impact on the viewer than written text. Moving images and sound also provide possibilities to define the personality of a city. Therefore, I think that videos are a more effective way to promote tourist destinations than traditional advertising.
- What do you think are the trends that are betting on in the Travel Video Marketing sector?
Cheaply produced, yet visually impressive micro-movies that are very authentic. You can see this tendency in the advertisement industry as well. It is shifting a little bit away from storytelling towards authentic, documentary-style stories.
