In
the process of Turkey Home campaign launched in 2014 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic
of Turkey, advertisement and branding practices of tourism destinations,
communication strategies, the results obtained thanks to contemporary
advertisement and marketing methods and means used in this process have been
analyzed in this study.
In
these days in which international relations have become quite intense and
complicated, "destination advertisement" is meant for
"expressing oneself" aimed at a specific target audience which
establishes the standard of judgement of the people related to each other, and
increases the influence power of the countries in terms of economic and
political interests.
Nowadays,
strengthening international relations, finding new markets and advertisement/marketing
for this purpose have become necessary in order for countries to be afloat as a
result of competitive conditions. Many places around the world possess similar
characteristics and similar products, thus surviving and staying strong in this
competitive world is only possible when an unique identity is formed. In other
words, the destinations attempt to influence the target audience by emphasizing
their own uniqueness.
The
way the target audience access to information, make or purchase a travel plan
and share its experiences have changed as a result of being more closely
interactive with social media in line with current sociological and
technological developments. Thus, social and
digital media have gained importance as a tourism marketing mean in many
countries, and in this direction active advertisement process has started in
order to obtain competitive advantage enriching the brand equity or to protect
current competitive advantages.
Touristic
product choice limited to type and theme of the channel via which it is
directed to target audience in traditional advertisement methods has gained
more space in social and digital media. In addition, the fact that the costs of
advertisment are cheaper than traditional methods allows more and different
kinds of advertisement opportunities with the same budget. Social and digital
media advertisement allows destination branding not only in a macro way but
also in a micro way. Communicating with individuals from different societies
and different target audiences continuously and positively, informing
individuals directly and reaching them without mediators have especially gained
importance both in today's competitive world and in a time of crisis. For these
purposes, Turkey Home campaign allows to continuously communicate with target
audience and followers in favor of Turkey through the social media channels.
TURKEY HOME CAMPAIGN
The
brand of "Turkey" consists of numerous products including
"culture" and "tourism". Being aware of this situation, The
Ministry of Culture and Tourism has developed a new communication paradigm
which aims at providing a visionary perspective for a holistic advertisement as
one man in line with the current developments and trends. It has prevented the
cultural and touristic richness of Turkey from being a marketing chaos and has
revealed the purpose of making the brand of "Turkey" as a driving
force.
Developments such as newly rising trends
around the world, change of mass tourism into individual, independent,
sensitive and experiential tourism movement as a result of the digital channels
becoming widespread, varying travel choices in terms of especially age group
and level of income, position of the cities as becoming a solely strong brands,
growing of alternative and niche tourism market and requirements of much more
product range in these fields, the influence power of the traditional
advertisement practices not being able to cover the target audience which has
changed in consequence of the technological developments and thus increasing
importance of social and digital media practices have made active communication
and advertisement necessary. In this context, the aims, strategies, actions
determined within the scope of Turkey Home campaign and the results intended to
obtain are as follows:
AIMS:Making the image of Turkey positive and
continuous; Providing branding and brand loyalty based on country, region and
point, Increasing the number of tourists and level of income obtained from
tourism, Increasing the recognition of touristic places, opportunities and
experiences,
STRATEGIES:
Providing
public-private cooperation, and coordination between institution, Focusing on the demand variety and
product-based advertisement, Establishing
long-term and continuous policies instead of short-term and uncertain ones, Following the new communication
technologies particularly social and digital media,
ACTIONS: Emphasizing the contemporary values being
loyal to different and unique values, Putting
mainly social and digital media campaigns supported with the public relations
activities into practice instead of usual advertisement methods, Providing active participation to
important local activities thanks to the sponsorship and cooperation depending
on the specific market of the specific country, Increasing the volume and diversity of the advertisement
activities performed with the sector, Strengthening
the perception of Turkey in the target country as one man within the scope of
"Turkey Home" campaign determined as an umbrella concept, Providing shareholders with templates
to be used in advertisement activities and consonant with main campaigns, Making Turkey fans and citizens in
target countries embrace, adopt and spread the campaign, Actively using the international activities such as sports
competition, concerts, festivals, exhibitions etc. in order to contribute to
perception of Turkey through the cultural diplomacy, Raising awareness about the advertisement practices in the target
audience through the consistent and holistic advertisements,
CONCLUSION:
Creating
globally strong, positive and unique brand identity and using the sources
efficiently.
In
line with the course of action, using a strategic idea continuously and
consistently by way of criticizing the country with a positive concept instead
of occupying the world agenda with a very creative idea for a short time, The
Ministry of Culture and Tourism has decided to perform advertisement practices
considering the information obtained as a consequence of the studies and
percept image researches done with the sector and academy. In this
context, Turkey Home campaign
in which the tulip logo of Turkey continues to be used to keep current sympathy
of Turkey as a tourism destination, and which identifies Turkey as the
inheritor of numerous civilizations throughout history and as the country of
people known for hospitability with the concepts of "home" and "homeland",
which gives particular importance to branding and tourism diplomacy has been
launched.
The
campaign provides limitless flexibility in terms of reaching all of the values
of the country to target audience thanks to its sustainable and modular
framework. It could also be used by governmental institutions, non-governmental
organizations, cities and private sector institutions. Thus, it has been aimed
at continuous and consistent advertisement of the country.
TURKEY HOME SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA
ACTIVITIES
Turkey Home is based on
media sharing, content producing and enrichment and development of the
processes of data collection and evaluation by each other. The data related to
contents shared on social and digital media consists of digital communication
strategy being reported in detail and new contents are accordingly shared on
various media channels. In this way, directing the appropriate content to
appropriate person has been become possible thanks to considering the
technological and sociological factors and producing content in line with the
basic needs and expectations of the target audience.
Media Choice: 3 types of
advertisement, marketing and cooperation works including "Social
Media", "Travel Media" and "Digital Media" have been
carried out as part of Turkey Home Global Image Campaign.
Content Producing: Cooperations
with Social Media Publishers and Influencers, Making content producing continuous, Producing special projects in
the fields of culture, tourism, sports, and Digital advertisement activities.
Data Collection: The Ministry of Culture and Tourismdetermines
the social media contents thanks to the database formed with the detailed data
obtained from data sources, and also allows campaign strategy to be developed.
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
As part of Turkey Home
which is an holistic and inclusive campaign and has been needed because of not
being able to use the social and digital media power as well as insufficient
overseas advertising activities ran with the campaigns which has changed every
year until 2013, social and digital media advertising activities have been
performed and as a result, registered mark badge has been obtained. Following 5
years, when the numbers of social media followers of competitor countries are
compared, it has been observed that it has reached to 5th place with 6.5
million followers following Australia, Dubai, USA and Mexico. About 6 billion
view, access over 4.5 billion and interactions about 1 billion have been
obtained on social and digital media up to today within the scope of Turkey
Home. Tourism and travel sector activities and cultural and sports activities
etc., and the produced contents have provided an important communication with
the individuals around the world on behalf of the country. The effect of this
communication has been evaluated with the international reports such as Global
Data (Tourism Boards Marketing Index 2017), World Economic Forum (The Travel
and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019), Bloom Consulting Country Brand
Ranking 2019/29 Tourism Edition and it has been observed that advertisement and
marketing activities performed up to today have vital effects on increasing the
country brand ranking.
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