How to market a country

Marketing a Country
Dubai Example

Agenda
Why Dubai deserves to win
Why destination marketing is done poorly
How Dubai can be the #1 destination in the world
Why Edward Nevraumont for CMO
Edward Nevraumont Dubai 25MM by 2020 Action Plan

Setting a baseline: Dubai is already the 5th most visited
destination with significant YoY growth
Overnight visitors by city, 2014
Million
15.6
Dubai
Hong Kong 8.8
8.6
New York
Istanbul
12.0
Seoul
18.7
Kuala Lumpur
12.5
10.8
11.8
11.6
Singapore
Paris
London
Bangkok 16.4
Annual Growth Rate
Four Year
Percent
9.2
2.1
5.0
15.8
5.8
9.2
9.1
4.1
12.0
6.2
• Dubai is the fifth most visited
destination in the world
• While Dubai’s visitors have
ben growing significantly at
9.2%/year, that has slowed
from 2013-2014 to 7.5%
• In the last four years Dubai
has shortened the gap vs
world leader London, but
that gap got wider from
2013-2014
• Meanwhile Istanbul has
experienced the fastest
growth of the major world
destinations and could
overtake Dubai if trends
continue
4.7
7.0
13.1
17.5
6.6
7.5
3.1
1.8
-11.0
8.0
Annual Growth Rate
Previous year
Percent
Source: Mastercard’s Global Destinations Cities Index

In visitor spend Dubai drops to 7th place behind NYC and
Seoul due to a below average $912 spend/visitor
Total visitor spend
$US Billion
11.5
8.3
8.1
9.4
18.6
10.9
14.3
17.0
13.0
19.3
Istanbul
Kuala Lumpur
Seoul
Hong Kong
New York
Singapore
Dubai
Paris
Bangkok
London
Spend per visitor
$US
1,333
939
749
810
1,575
912
1,147
1,092
792
1,033
Four year growth in spend/visitor
Percent/year
1.1
3.0
1.1
5.8
-0.1
1.0
1.5
0.2
2.1
2.6
• Dubai has the seventh
highest total spend from
visitors due to below
average spend per
visitor
• While growth in
spend/visitor has been
low across all major
destinations, Dubai is
trailing significantly
behind the others

Dubai attracts more visitors from outside region than other
top destinations, but regional share is growing
Share of visitors
Percent
• Dubai has by
far the largest
share of out-
side of region
visitors
• But regional
feeder cities in
Saudi Arabia
are growing
much faster
than feeder
cities outside
the region
47.0% 53.0%
58.0%
Paris
Inter-RegionIntra-Region
34.0% 66.0%
Riyadh
45.0% 55.0%
Bangkok
Dubai
Mexico City
Istanbul
77.0% 23.0%
82.0% 18.0%
42.0%
64.0% 36.0%
67.0% 33.0%
46.0% 54.0%
London
Johannesburg
Singapore
Top five feeder cities
Four-year annual growth (percent)
6.8
7.5
4.1
36.6
Jeddah
London
Paris
Kuwait
Riyadh
39.7

Dubai is considered one of the “best” destinations in the
world, but it is far behind the leaders
Source: TripAdvisor Annual Top Destinations Survey
Best (Top 25) Destinations in the World
TripAdvisor Ranking Poll
1- Marakesh
2- Siem Reap
3- Istanbul
4- Hanoi
5- Prague
6- London
7- Rome
8- Buenos Aires
9- Paris
10- Cape Town
11- New York City
12- Zermat
13- Barcelona
…
23- Hong Kong
24- Dubai
25- Sydney
• Dubai is considered one of the “best”
destinations in the world but it lags
behind London, Bangkok and Paris:
• London #6
• Bangkok #18
• Paris #9
• Singapore n/a
• Dubai #24
• Thankfully being considered a “Top
Destination” is not closely correlated with
high visitor growth (i.e., Marakesh), but is
a factor that should not be ignored

Dubai has significant strength as an air hub, but still falls
behind London and Paris
AirHub Index Score
Mastercard Destinations Index
• Dubai has the fourth highest AirHub
score, but only marginally better than
New York and Istanbul and significantly
behind London and Paris
• The combination of ease of travel
(AirHub) and attractive destination (Top
Destination Rank) is a good predictor of
actual visitors. Any attempt to grow Dubai
visitors should consider growing both in
tandem
41.5
44.3
45.4
45.5
47.9
48.4
50.9
51.2
68.3
103.2
Amsterdam
Singapore
Moscow
Hong Kong
Istanbul
Dubai
New York
Frankfurt
Paris
London

Being the most visited destination takes three
interacting elements
A Great
Destination
Ease of
Travel
Great
Marketing
+ +
A Great Destination makes marketing easier and travel seem more bearable.
Easier travel makes a destination seem more attractive and marketing easier.
Great marketing makes travel seem easier and a destination more attractive.
Dubai is a great destination with easy travel options.
Great Marketing could take Dubai over the top to become the top destination
in the world

Destination Marketing around the world is
currently done very poorly
Tourism Boards were big
spenders with Expedia Media
Solutions, but none of them
put any effort into measuring
effectiveness
Former VP, Media Solutions, Expedia
Tourism Boards spend their money to
impress their stakeholders, not to
efficiently drive visitors. Only four
bureaus spend enough to have accounts
with Google. They are barely spending
on digital at all.
Managing Director, Travel, Google
We feel we are more sophisticated
than most other travel bureaus…But
our best way to measure marketing
campaign impact is before and after
surveys and we know they are not
really accurate.
CMO, Destination Canada
A lot of these guys [travel bureaus] use
metrics like “media impressions” to
determine impact. But two Pennysaver
articles will get you more impressions
than the cover of Time Magazine.
Head of Public Relations, Expedia

Destination Marketing is difficult, but much of the
poor performance is due to structural issues
Driver of poor
performance Details Example
Politics • Many T&CB teams are created at the whim of
politicians. When the politicians change, the
teams are often re-shuffled and given new
priorities
• When Mexico’s government changed hands
the entire T&CB team was replaced and all in-
flight programs were cancelled
Stakeholder
Satisfaction
• Many T&CBs have limited budgets and need
to ‘self fund’ with help from stakeholders like
domestic hotels, airlines etc. Their goal
becomes to appease their stakeholders rather
than outward facing targets
• California’s T&CB spends significantly on
television IN CALIFORNIA. That way it is seen
by the local stakeholders who feel they are
getting something for their money
Difficult
Tracking
• In order for destination marketing to be
effective one needs to influence potential
travelers very early in the decision funnel. By
definition early funnel marketing is difficult to
track through to impact
• Since there is no simple way to track early
funnel performance there is less
accountability. Destination Canada uses
before and after surveys which limits types of
marketing activity, and does not correlate to
actual results
Old School
Marketers
• Traditional marketing was not data driven.
Due to lack of ability to offer equity Tourism
Boards have traditionally hired “old-school”
marketers rather than cutting edge digital
natives
• Most Tourism CMOs come from the Packaged
Goods Industry and/or transfers from other
travel bureau-like organizations

Dubai has the opportunity to break with tradition
and have the greatest destination marketing in the
world
Driver of poor
performance
Politics
Stakeholder
Satisfaction
Difficult
Tracking
Old School
Marketers
How Dubai can circumvent the issue and ‘out-compete’ the other destinations
• Stable government in Dubai will allow a team to work towards a specific
target for multiple years without changes in direction
• Significant ‘single-point’ funding will allow a Dubai Marketing Organization to
work towards a goal to drive visitors without excessive need to appease
adjacent stakeholders
• While early funnel tracking is always difficult, new methods have been
created that will allow for an experienced marketing team to measure actual
impact of marketing campaigns (more follows)
• While equity is not on the table, high base compensation combined with no
taxes can attract a strong leader and team. Note: Attracting Americans may
be difficult due to their global tax policies, but finding international expertise
with significant experience working in the USA should not prove difficult

Dubai has a unique opportunity to become the
world leader in destination marketing
A Great Destination
Ease of Travel
Great Marketing
High spend
Efficient Spend
• Dubai is one of a handful of
destinations that have attractive
characteristics for travelers AND
easy travel
• Dubai is already a top-five
destination without significant
marketing
• There is huge opportunity to make
Dubai a more “desired” destination
(from current #24 position)
• Dubai has a unique opportunity
with marketing. The ability to have
a high budget, combined with the
independence to change the
inefficient marketing methods
currently used by destination
bureaus

There is a blue-print for how to build a world-class
marketing organization
Tactic Details
Collect Information • Use existing customer touch-points to collect as much information as possible
• Build scalable survey tools to collect non-customer information
• Determine key drivers for travel to Dubai and key barriers for those choosing not to travel
• Create enterprise an data warehouse and expose to analytic tools (i.e., Tableau / Qlikview)
Create early funnel
metrics
• Create easily measurable early-funnel activities for potential travelers
• Maintain long-term records of activities to ensure correlation to long term travel behavior
Maintain Control
Groups
• Choose specific countries to hold out marketing activities. Use those countries as control
groups to measure total impact on targeted countries
• Vary marketing activities by country to estimate most effective channels
Create a CRM program • Ensure marketing programs drive collection of potential traveler email addresses
• Create long term “drip campaigns “ to keep potential traveler interest in Dubai (and drive
repeat visits from a actual Dubai travelers)
Utilize all marketing
channels
• Use early funnel metrics to determine most efficient marketing channels
• Be prepared to test new channels which tend to have higher efficiency (i.e., Utilize social
media personalities to change brand perceptions of target market travelers)
• Create “flanker brands” to intercept potential travelers before they have considered Dubai
Find ways to shift
share
• Look for “end of funnel” opportunities to shift share from other destinations to Dubai (i.e.,
Intercept shoppers traveling from USA to India and offer stop-overs in Dubai)

Collecting Information is essential for efficient
marketing spend
• Use existing customer touch-points should be used to collect as
much information as possible
• Hawaii requires all visitors to fill out an agriculture form upon
entering the State. On the back of the form is a tourism survey
which collects data on who is visiting including things like
• How long is the stay
• How many people in the group
• Independent travel or with a tour
• Where will they be staying
• Demographic information (age, gender, nationality)
• Where they will go / what they will do in Hawaii
• How many times they have been to Hawaii
• Most importantly they collect visitors email addresses which allow
for follow-up marketing and promotion (and surveys)

Early funnel metrics are necessary to ensure efficient
marketing spend
• APFM helps people find senior housing for their
parents or loved ones
• In addition to end-of-funnel marketing channels
(paid search), we spend significantly on top-of-
funnel channels (Television)
• Every TV or off-line media spot is given a unique
phone number
• We track the number of calls generated from
every TV spot
• The true impact of TV is NOT just the leads from
the phone calls. We can see the short and long
term correlation between phone calls and ‘brand’
traffic to our website
• We cannot know if a given TV spot caused
someone to visit our website 4 months later, but
we can know the number of immediate phone
calls a spot generated and we know that for every
phone call generated xxx.x INCREMENTAL
number of people will visit the website four
months later (on average)
• This allows us to focus on TV spend on the short
term metric and know(or assume) the long term
impact will arrive

Marketing Dubai as a destination needs to drive
potential travelers to perform measurable activities
• Just as APFM drives potential customers to make
phone calls, Dubai marketing could drive potential
travelers to download a Dubai Guide
• It would require creating a high quality product
(similar to a Lonely Planet) and then give away digital
versions for free
• Actual impact from an early funnel marketing
campaign would not only be the number of guides
downloaded, but we could assume impact would be
correlated to the number of downloads tracked back
to the specific campaign
• It would be a way to measure relative effectiveness
of different marketing activities early in the funnel
• (Other early funnel activity drivers could and should
be tested as well)

Holding out some markets as control groups allows
the total impact of marketing to be better measured
From Destination Canada’s annual report
• Total international visitors to Canada were up 3.2%, while the countries that
had marketing dollars assigned to them were up 10%
• Note that this does not mean 6.8% of the growth was due to marketing. Other
factors need to be controlled for such as overall tourism growth out of the
two groups of countries

Long term Customer Relationship Management is
essential for early funnel marketing
• Email is a scalable way to
maintain touch points with
potential travelers
• Each email received is a “brand
impression” that increases the
future likelihood to consume
the product
• Each email also has a
probability of causing a
subscriber to ‘unsubscribe’
• Better programs are able to
send emails at higher frequency
without increasing unsubscribe
rates
Example emails received from Expedia

New marketing channels can sometimes be the most
efficient
• Once an early funnel measurement system is set
up, different marketing channels can be tested
for relative effectiveness
• Ting Wireless is a small regional telecom carrier.
Without the huge budgets of AT&T and Verizon
they were able to get significant growth by
utilizing Social Media personalities
• Rather than advertising on YouTube they went
directly to YouTube ‘personalities’ and sponsored
the individuals to promote Ting to their
viewership. They also had similar success with
Podcasters
• With effective early funnel tracking one can
determine which marketing channels (TV, Radio,
Facebook, Social Media Sponsorship, etc.) are
the most effective, and which subchannels within
a channel are the most effective

Flanker Brands are a proven technique to influence
potential customers early in the decision funnel
• While getting social media fans for “Dubai” is
great, it would be even better to have long-
term influence on potential travelers who
have not yet committed to being excited to
travel to Dubai – and influence them to
become excited
• One effective method is creating flanker
brands that are more broadly appealing, and
then use them to influence subscribers
towards your brand
• Adobe owns CMO.com where they discuss
issues of importance to CMOs, but also
nudge the use of Adobe products
• A Place For Mom operates Alzheimer.net, a
community for people with family members
affected by Alzheimer’s. But it also nudges
readers to getting help (when they are ready)
– with A Place For Mom

It may be possible to shift share of travelers at the
point of purchase
Expedia search results for flight from NYC to Mumbai
It is possible to target travelers by departure city and destination with ads – during the booking
process. A/B tests can be done to determine the effectiveness of ads suggesting the consumer ad
a stop-over in Dubai

Why Edward Nevraumont for CMO?
• Edward is a quantitative, data driven marketer who
trained under the most distinguished professors in
modeling consumer-level behavior at Wharton
business school
• His four years at McKinsey provided experiences
working around the world, including Canada, USA,
Australia, Denmark, Czech Republic, France,
Netherlands, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Congo-B, DRC,
and Dubai
• He led the turnaround for the Warburg Pincus-backed A
Place For Mom, quadrupling it’s value in four years
• His executive-level role at Expedia gave him a broad
understanding of the worldwide travel industry and
provided numerous contacts he could leverage in this
role
• Edward has a ‘spike’ in training and developing teams.
He has volunteered his time coaching improv comedy
teams to national championships and spent a semester
lecturing at the University of Washington MBA school

Good Enough
•If you found this document interesting, check
out my blog:
MarketingIsEasy.com
•I am writing a book:
“Why Good Enough is Better than Excellent”
•You can sign-up on MarketingIsEasy.com and
get regular updates on the progress and
excerpts from the book

How to market a country

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