In this new article of the rubric “From Idea To Reality – Successful Tourism Campaigns”, we delve into the creative process behind the promotional video "Slovenian Gastronomy - You can't spell Slovenia without love. Your plate awaits." Produced by Tent Production House for the Slovenian Tourist Board, the video showcases the exceptional advantage Slovenian chefs possess— privileged access to local ingredients.
Slovenian culinary philosophy is based on the principle ‘from the garden to table’, which emphasizes the profound connection between chefs and local producers, as well as the deep-rooted relationship between Slovenian landscapes and traditional culinary experiences.
Through this video, viewers are granted an intimate glimpse into the lives and personas of six highly esteemed chefs, each possessing a coveted Michelin star. These culinary maestros include Ana Roš, Gregor Vračko, Jorg Zupan, Uroš Štefelin, Uroš Fakuč, and Tomaž Kavčič. The video beautifully captures their vision, dedicated work, unwavering passion, and profound love for food and the environment.
Notably, the video has garnered well-deserved recognition, being awarded by CIFFT as one of the World's Best Tourism Films of 2022, securing 5th place in the Tourism Products category.
Watch now Slovenian Gastronomy - You can't spell Slovenia without love. Your plate awaits.
From Idea To Reality – The Creative Process
Slovenian Tourism Board, a governmental agency for tourism promotion, works intensively on promotional content for all tourism products, and much effort goes into quality photo and video material, based on a storytelling approach, as a part of our cover communication strategy “My way”.
We felt very honored when Slovenian chefs were awarded with 7 Michelin stars in the first Michelin guide revelation for Slovenia in 2020. We decided instantly that we need to tell the world about the sustainable gastronomy, top chefs, and garden-to-table plaits that we all create – in fine dining restaurants and at home, the philosophy that hasn’t changed from our ancestors on.
We put the 6 awarded chefs and their local suppliers as stars in our national gastronomy story. We were glad to get a production team via public tender that really understood the story behind the idea, and the so-called “Netflix documentary” filming approach gave us exactly what we wanted.
The Goals and Strategies
The main goal was to highlight Slovenian sustainable gastronomy and put it on a bucket list of foodies around the world. Most activities were done during the pandemic when all restaurants were closed, and there was basically no public life. So, we officially launched it when the times allowed travel and gastronomy experiences again in May 2021.
We knew we did a great video, but the feedbacks were unexpectedly amazing. Today the video (in Slovenian and English versions, with subtitles also in Italian and German) is used for all promotional activities on different channels related to Slovenian gastronomy worldwide. Being part of a series of international film festivals around the world gave the video and Slovenia as a sustainable boutique tourism destination even more positive exposure.
The Challenges
The biggest challenge was the time of filming, right in between the first and second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia. We managed to film everything in September and early October, just before the second lockdown in Slovenia. From there, the second challenge popped out – when to launch the video, since no one knew how long the situation was going to last. We made a video, which was inviting people to Slovenian restaurants – people weren’t allowed to travel, and all restaurants in Slovenia were closed. In late spring 2021, when the lockdown was over, we had all versions ready. We launched the video in perfect timing – both internationally and nationally showing it when life started to normalize again and people started to plan their (inter)national experiences.
“We strongly believe that sharing our way of life with sustainable gastronomy and crowned with top chefs in a video was a success. It is simple - You can’t spell Slovenia without love. Your plait awaits.” Tina Sracnjek, project manager for video production at STB.
The Results
It is quite hard to measure the success of the video only by numbers. It got many international awards, including 5th place in total in the tourism product category at CIFFT 2022. It is receiving awards even in 2023, 2 years after the official launch. For us, it is most important that we use the video, shorter clips, and related photos in all our campaigns worldwide, which exceed all KPI’s that we plan. It is a piece of content that does not get old and tells a pristine story of Slovenian gastronomy, which has a strong statement of being sustainable, boutique, and truly a 5-star experience.
