A surprisingly large and positive response from the world to Visit Sweden’s “Sweden (not Switzerland)” initiative.
After just a few days, the Swedish tourism marketing initiative, where Visit Sweden wants to settle with Switzerland which country is which, has been reported in the media across more than 35 countries globally.
In Visit Sweden’s own digital channels alone, the reach is over one million people during the first days of the campaign and with hundreds of positive and encouraging comments from the Swiss and the rest of the world.
In an initial survey with 500 respondents who have seen the campaign, over 70% say that they are now more interested in travelling to Sweden than before.
During the first days of the campaign, launched on 23 October, over 500 news articles have been published about Sweden in over 35 countries across several continents totalling millions of readers.
Several articles were published in Forbes, in French Le Figaro, in Italian Corriere della Sera and in one of Switzerland’s largest daily newspapers Neue Zuricher Zeitung. The campaign’s message has also created positive engagement from the Swiss public, Swiss media, Swiss embassies and IKEA in Switzerland.
The initiative has reached far more than the ten countries where Visit Sweden has focused its marketing activities: Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, the United States and China, as well as Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
“Colleagues who have worked for Visit Sweden for 20 years say that no previous campaign has received such a large, positive response in such a short time”, says Visit Sweden’s CEO Susanne Andersson.
“We are, of course, extremely happy about the large and positive response, which has actually taken us a bit by surprise,” says Susanne. “We knew it was a great campaign with a humourous twist – but not that it would be well received so quickly…”
Visit Sweden has now even started to receive film clips from individuals and other media, where they suggest different ways of separating out the countries’ different attributes.
“We have received lots of positive comments and short videos where private individuals, influencers and media have made their own lists and breakdowns of the countries’ various assets. Among other things, many people think that we should keep the fermented herring to ourselves”, Susanne laughs.
Following the positive response from the world, Visit Sweden has now expanded and accelerated the campaign with different types of digital advertising.
“We are now ramping up visibility one step to maximise on the positive image the initiative is spreading about Sweden as a tourist destination,” says Susanne.
To the very few, exclusively in Sweden, who have vaguely complained about Visit Sweden’s, perhaps slightly odd, approach and timing, Susanne says: “Here in fantastic, democratic Sweden with free speech, openness and tolerance we must not sit quietly. We should instead do everything we can to inform and attract more people to visit and enjoy Sweden, be inspired by our values and perhaps take some of them home with them after a successful holiday.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
