New Campaign Names Costa Rica as ‘A Sanctuary for Overworked North Americans’
Costa Rica is a Natural Haven for Your Dream Vacation and the Perfect
Destination to Escape for a Break from Your Daily Life
A new Costa Rica campaign names Costa Rica as ‘A Sanctuary for Overworked North Americans’. The campaign aims to highlight Costa Rica’s one-of-a-kind features inviting tourist to enjoy Costa Rica’s unparellelled natural amenities from volcanoes, hot springs, mud-baths to hidden beaches, turquoise waters and secluded jungles — Escape to Costa Rica and you will discover peace and tranquilly, far away from the hustle and bustle of normal daily life. The Tamarindo News reports:
By taking advantage of the natural benefits of the country, which invite to relaxation and a peaceful coexistence with nature, Costa Rica outlined its new promotional campaign meant to sell the country as a tourist destination to escape from the stress of big cities.
• Save the Americans (Save the Canadians) looks for “rescuing overworked Americans and Canadians.”
• The US is Costa Rica’s largest market of tourists.
• Investment in campaign will amount US$ 3.3 million.
According to the World Economic Forum, the United States is considered the main developed country in which its inhabitants work excessively in days that exceed eight hours and even on weekends. Practically, the life of Americans revolves around work. (https://agenda.weforum.org/2014/10/americans-europeans-work-evenings-weekends/)
Given this scenario, the Costa Rican Board of Tourism (ICT) developed this advertising campaign for the US and Canada and has named it Save the Americans (Save the Canadians, for the Canadian market), with which it is attempted to go to the rescue of those who work endlessly and in which Costa Rica has been positioned as a natural haven for a dream vacation.
Weeks ago, when announcing the campaign, Wilhelm von Breymann, Minister of Tourism, said that these messages reinforce the feeling of many tourists that find in Costa Rica a vacation oasis and the perfect escape for a break in the daily grind and live an authentic travel experience.
Our country has many advantages that make it a haven for relaxation, leisure, and recreation. We have an unrivaled concentration of biodiversity, beaches surrounded by nature, imposing mountains and volcanoes, which, coupled with our cultural richness and the warmth of the “Ticos,” become the best introduction. We want to reach our key tourism markets (US and Canada) with a strong message that they will find a refuge to escape the overwhelming routine and regain strength in our country,» emphasized von Breymann. Almost 50 % of international arrivals to our country are from North America, United States being the main source market of tourists to Costa Rica.
In the first nine months of this year, as to the total international arrivals recorded for all ports, North America had the largest number (967,851), out of which over 80% were from the United States and around 13 % belonged to Canada (130,064).
This campaign is aimed at the group of top prospects for Costa Rica, composed of the population residing in the United States and Canada highly interested in visiting or revisiting the country, which are characterized as experienced travelers, committed to sustainability, and with high income and education levels.
According to information from ICT, the top prospects in the US have increased from 10.2 million in 2001 to 17.6 million in 2013. For Canada, the figure rose from 1.4 million in 2001 to 3.4 million in 2012.
Save the Americans
Costa Rica is home to a wide biodiversity with more than 500,000 species of flora and fauna. This fact motivated ICT’s advertising agency in the United States, 22 Squared, develop a new campaign in which various species of animals in Costa Rica unite to rescue the overworked Americans, make them visit the country and enjoy this natural refuge during their vacations.
Alejandro Castro, ICT Market Director, explained that a campaign was designed to strengthen the position of our country as a tourist destination, which includes actions such as launching a music video produced in Costa Rica. Members of the renowned Costa Rican group Master Key played the «voices» of the protagonist animals of the video (a toucan, an anteater, a sloth, among others), who sing a song dedicated to Americans who overwork. The idea is to provide a contrast between work cubicles in which Americans and Canadians are submerged and the dream vacation paradise in Costa Rica.
The video is available on YouTube, the campaign’s social media, and will also be screened in cinemas in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Houston, San Antonio, San Diego, and Dallas. Similarly, there will be a «behind the scenes» video with shots taken while filming and recording the ad.
The web site www.savetheamericans.org (www.savethecanadians.org) was launched, too. It has an appealing design and it is easy to navigate through. The website has been available since December 17, date in which the campaign was launched in the United States and Canada. The video in charge of these Costa Rican animals will be the one welcoming the visitors in this website.
The site will feature information for tourists to plan their travel routes and find those places that are ideal for escaping from the routine. In addition, over 30 promotional videos from various parts of the country, showing a number of activities that can be practiced in Costa Rica will be available.
Castro said the campaign includes exposure in wall ads in the cities of Chicago and Toronto, complemented with digital content and banners on popular sites like YouTube, Google, New York Times, Yahoo, Outbrain, Matador, and Network, and activations on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. These media are characterized by their positioning and popularity, which facilitates exposure to our target market at a much lower cost than that of a traditional campaign.
One of the most innovative actions will be a sand sculpture of the most representative animals of Costa Rica like toucans, howler monkeys, and sea turtles. It will be located in one of the busiest sites of New York City, next to the Wall Street Bull, a renowned bronze sculpture located in New York, one of the largest sites with job pressure in the US. This activation will symbolize the rescue of overworked Americans.
Messages are also going to be placed on scaffolding boxes for washing windows in different buildings in the United States, in order to get straight to the target audience, whose members are “trapped” in their offices. As to Canada, a night slide show will take place in a building in Toronto, in a high traffic area, where the messages related to the campaign will be spotted.
According to Castro, these tactics seek to captivate the attention of most people in a different way. The goal is to generate multiple comments due to its creativity and, most importantly, achieve the interest to visit or revisit our country.
The campaign Save the Americans will run from December this year to January 2016, with an investment of $ 3.3 million (85 % in the US and 15 % in Canada).