It’s important for travel and tourism brands to communicate the value of their destination to consumers by providing them with a memorable experience or moment that speaks to its tradition and conveys the destination’s value. Actively engaging consumers in this way brings the idea of the destination to life and allows people to immerse themselves in the potential travel experience. EMC did exactly this for Essential Costa Rica on International Coffee Day by giving New Yorkers a literal taste of the Costa Rican culture.
Known as the coffee capital of Latin America, few countries take as much pride in their coffee as Costa Rica where it is actually illegal to produce anything but Arabica coffee (a.k.a the most superior coffee bean there is). Just about everyone who comes to visit falls in love the notoriously flavorful cup o’ joe.
Essential Costa Rica, Costa Rica’s tourism brand, saw a valuable opportunity to increase brand awareness and promote Costa Rica Tourism on International Coffee Day, a day dedicated to something the country has gotten down to a delicious science. New York City, the most populous city in the United States, proved to be the perfect market due to the high amount of traffic and broad demographics, including those with enough disposable income to travel. So, we brought the Costa Rican pura vida to the Big Apple!
Brand ambassadors handed out free cups of delicious Costa Rican coffee, freshly brewed from a Chorreador (the Costa Rican method for making coffee). The reps cruised around on custom built, colorfully-painted mobile coffee stations mounted on wooden bicycles made to look like oxcarts. (Called carretas in Spanish, oxcarts are mostly used for celebrations in Costa Rica today and are considered a traditional and cultural icon in the country). The brand ambassadors also encouraged people to sign up for a chance to win a free trip to Costa Rica valued at $10,000.
Our single-day experiential activation allowed Essential Cost Rica to share an authentic sensory experience with the people of NYC. Over 1,000 cups of coffee were handed out and hundreds signed up in hopes of winning the sweepstakes. Our strategy successfully grew brand awareness for Costa Rica tourism and increased consumer engagement, and the beautifully decorated oxcart bikes offered ample opportunity for user generated social content from participants and passersby.
Our team has a long history of providing full-service experiential marketing activations for travel and tourism brands. If you need some fresh ideas to engage your audience, or want to execute on a crazy idea and don’t know where to start, then connect with us today!
