This was my presentation delivered at the European Cities Marketing conference in Madrid about why destination should brand themselves working with bloggers. I talked about the why, shared some examples of some cool blogging projects and the impact they created. Hope you find it useful and look forward to your comments, feedback.

2. BRANDING WITH BLOGGERS
KASH BHATTACHARYA
BUDGETRAVELLER &
BLOGGER OUTREACH EXPERT
TOPOSOPHY

4. !4
Blogging at BudgetTraveller.org for 7 years
Winner of the UK Travel Blogger Vlogger of
the year at the Travel Media Awards
Featured in the Guardian, NY Times, CNN,
Lonely Planet & Vanity Fair
2.5 million people have come to my site for
travel inspiration. I wrote a guide to Luxury
Hostels which you can download for FREE
from my blog.
Award winning digital travel marketeer,
creator of #Blogville, #Blogmanay & as part
of iAmbassador and also run
#MustLoveFestivals
@BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016

6. I am the blogger outreach expert for the destination marketing agency, Toposophy

7. WHY
WORK WITH BLOGGERS?
@BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016

8. @BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016
66%
OF MILLENNIALS USE TRAVEL BLOGS WHEN
PLANNING THEIR TRIPS
WYSE MILLENNIAL REPORT

9. WHO ARE THE INFLUENCERS IN TRAVEL?
@BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016

10. BEST BLOGGERS NOT ONLY
CREATE GREAT CONTENT
ABOUT YOUR CITY….

11. THEY ALSO CAN PROMOTE IT
GIVING YOU ACCESS TO HIGHLY ENGAGED COMMUNITIES

13. Professional bloggers don’t work for just free trips and ‘exposure.’
They not create great content, they offer your destination access to highly
engaged communities, their powerful social networks & can offer valueable
insights. Isn’t that worth paying for?

14. BUILT MY BRAND OUT OF
SERVIVING THE
UNRECOGNISED NEEDS OF
TRAVELLERS
@BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016

15. LUXURY HOSTELS
#LUXURYHOSTELS

16. @BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016
LUXURY HOSTELS: More than just a bed, an experience.
Featured in New York Times, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, CNN, Grazia to name a
few publications.
12000 downloads of the e-book till date (download for free from my blog)
Booking widget to launch on the blog in May 2016, powered by Hostelworld.

18. Lisbon Cascais Sintra Porto Milan Munich
Cologne Krakow Rotterdam Haarlem
Amsterdam Copenhagen Hamburg
Barcelona Malaga Granada Cordoba
Sevilla Paris Lille Ghent Leuven Berlin
Stockholm Saint Petersburg Gothenberg
Tampere Reykjavik Edinburgh Rijeka
Zadar Zagreb Belgrade
#LUXURYHOSTELS TOUR
MAY- JULY 2016

19. MUST LOVE FESTIVALS

20. !20
‘We wonder if you have any ideas of how you can
help raise awareness of some of our lesser known
festivals?’
Kim Heinen, Rotterdam Marketing
@BudgetTraveller @Toposophy #ECMMadrid2016

22. !22
Festivals needs a rebrand

24. MUST LOVE FESTIVALS
Digital storytelling project (www.mustlovefestivals.com) with 16 top travel bloggers
covering 80 of Europe’s coolest and quirkiest festivals. Developed in partnership with
Expedia.
Working with 16 tourism boards (Austria, Germany, Hague, Rotterdam, Finland,
Slovenia, Ireland, Puglia, Malta) + Meininger Hotels & Generator Hostels
240 blog posts published which have received 1.8 million views so far.
April 2015: Must Love Festivals 2014 e-book to be sent out to Expedia’s database of 2
million people.
Project went global this year with new partners that include Canada, Latvia and Poland.
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark

26. “Increasingly we see people travelling not just to
see a destination, but to experience something
characteristic of that destination.
Working with Kash and Must Love Festivals we
wanted to highlight the wide range of festival
experiences out there and in so doing to help our
customers discover both new destinations and a
new side to old favourites”
Andy Washington
Managing Director, Expedia UK

27. BLOGVILLE ITALY

28. 4 YEARS OF BLOGVILLE
2 LOCATIONS: BOLOGNA AND
MILAN
180 INFLUENCERS FROM OVER 5
CONTINENTS
1200 ARTICLES PRODUCED
15000 PHOTOS & VIDEOS
SHARED
1.8 MILLION VISITORS TO THE
POSTS
18 MILLION USERS REACHED ON
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

29. Travel is an emotional sell.
You have to give bloggers the
trust, to build an emotional
relationship with you destination.

31. #LoveDublin hashtag has so far generated 193.4
million opportunities to see (OTS) (Target was 40
million)
#LoveDublin social media coverage during this period
was equivalent to an advertising spend of €2.47 million.
Engagement: Of the 38,500 hashtag mentions, 22,000
were shares and replies. This translates into an
engagement rate of 57.1%. From our experience, the
engagement rate of similar campaigns average
between 30-40%.
#LoveDublin twitter chat generated 21.5 million
impressions on 28th January, reaching 3.5 million
Twitter accounts!
#LOVEDUBLIN

32. #ThisisAthens

33. 8 top travel bloggers from across Europe experienced Athens for 6
consecutive weeks, each representing a specific persona as defined by the
creative team matching their profile.
Experience Design Workshop involving all key stakeholders: Bucket list of
experiences created for the bloggers.
My Experience Fellow app: bloggers gave useful feedback to the AVCB
and partners
#ThisisAthens hashtag generated 35 million opportunities to see (OTS)
reaching 8 million people.
155 pieces of content created.
#ThisisAthens

34. 'Evangelists are the tide that lifts all
boats'
Carl Shepherd, cofounder Homeway

35. Work with the right, professional travel
bloggers who can be evangelists for your
city
www.iambassador.net
http://www.captivatedigitalmedia.com

36. LETS KEEP IN TOUCH
EMAIL europebudgetguide@gmail.com
kash@toposophy.com
TWITTER @budgetraveller
INSTAGRAM @BudgetTraveller
LINKEDIN https://pt.linkedin.com/in/budgettraveller

37. FURTHER READING
Download the iAmbassador white paper
for working with bloggers http://bit.ly/
21kvZwY
9 suggestions to DMO’s to improve their
blogger outreach http://bit.ly/1PtB5kv