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Creating travel and tourism video content during Covid19

Creating video storytelling content during Covid19

Creating travel and tourism video content during Covid19

Your target audience has cabin fever  People have spent months rethinking life, goals, dreams, and bucket lists. You only have to look at social media to see this truth bomb. So many posts are about “I want to do this!” “Let’s do this!” “Let’s go when Covid19 is over!”

Consumers are looking for the best fit for which tourism operators will help them accomplish these goals. They will find the ‘right’ outlets through developing a bond via video storytelling. They watch a video by a tourism operator and an emotional call to action is triggered: “Yes, this is the one I want to experience this adventure with!”

So how do you get started? Do you bring in a Hollywood sized film crew, actors, and all the bells and whistles to shoot something epic? Um. No. Not really necessary, unless you have canoes full of money.

You really just need a video that is about the real you.

Telling authentic video stories is about being real, naturalgenuine, personable…… and often, entertaining.

It’s not about being so choreographed that it looks staged and ‘acted’. It’s not about cramming a video with tons of drone footage (but hey, it does look cool!).

I really believe that Covid19 has caused consumers to look harder at what authenticity personally means to them. It’s this self reflection that will be powerful moving forward in terms of whom they will support and where they will spend their money. There is no given that they will spend that money on you. The only given today is that consumers are spending more time searching for which experiences feel right.

How to tell authentic destination marketing stories

Authenticity matters first. Not views.

I’ve seen organizations and businesses get all giddy at getting 10,000+ views on a video. But ask them if it produced a result, and they can’t say yes or no.

I’ve seen other small businesses get only 350 views on a video, but the owner can tell me that it resulted in customers and more than paid for itself in dollars spent in store.

(BTW, stop obsessing about only views. Facebook counts a one view as someone watching your video for three seconds. Yes, three seconds! So stop thinking 1000 views, or 5000 views is super impressive. Vanity metrics for views, as currently measures by Facebook, mean almost squat.)

Subconsciously, viewers are always watching and evaluating whether video content is authentic or contrived. The differentiator is that authentic sticks in our heads because it builds upon the realness narrative that attracts us to brands, especially those in small towns. Contrived videos (or over-produced and over-staged) are like a drug: They can deliver a short high. And then they can become hazy quickly.

What does authenticity look like?

When I hear people talk about “Being Authentic” I always come back to this essential factor: To know your true self, you need to know your story.

Your story is a combination of knowing your past, and where your future is headed.

Here are six things you need to think about for your unique story:

Understand what has failed in the past and WHY
Recognize what has worked and WHY
What comes naturally to you?
Know what you don’t like
What do you struggle with?
Know what ignites the fire inside you and inspires you!

Once you have compiled the answers to the above, you’ll be well on your way to resonating as authentic in your videos. What’s more, your potential audience and existing customers will see as way more relatable. And that can only help your business or organization.

Gregg McLachlan
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