About Incredible India
As a matter of fact, since the tourism industry is on a high in the 21st century and that there is a shift of international tourists from developed countries to the developing ones, the Indian economy leveraged it. With a view to bring focus on the rich multi cultural heritage and diversity persisting in India and to lay emphasis on several aspects like tourism, infrastructure, natural resources, festivals, historical monuments etc., the Government of India Ministry of Tourism coined the concept of Incredible India.
A Government of India initiative, Incredible India is an international marketing campaign to promote tourism in India in the year 2002 to the global audience. The then Joint Secretary under the Union Ministry of Tourism, Amitabh Kant officially branded and promoted the title Incredible India.
Incredible India’s Business Objectives
Enumerated below are the prime business objectives of Incredible India:
- To promote India as the desirable destination among international travelers from the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.
- To build on the existing Incredible India campaign.
- To attract more visitors to India.
- To reach out to travelers in a cost-effective way.
Approach/Strategy Adopted by Incredible India
Incredible India undertook such a marketing strategy that not only comprised of the traditional marketing media mix but also integrated online marketing such that the Ministry of Tourism could reach the rising number of people who research their holiday destinations online. The Ministry realized the need for an extremely interactive yet engaging campaign so as to ascertain message retention as and when the tourists would make the decisions to visit their favourite international holiday destinations, months before the actual travel dates.
The following is the list of products that were used to accomplish this online campaign:
- MSN Homepage
- MSN Channels
- Windows Live Hotmail
- Microsoft Offers Solution Rich Media Ads
- Optimized Media Plan (For creative placement)
- Opt-in Hotmail Newsletters
The campaign ads were run on the aforesaid Travel, News and Entertainment channels. Ministry’s decision to work with Microsoft Advertising for its popularity and global reach enabled Incredible India to reach out to travelers, while minimizing the campaign costs. Online advertising which comprised of colourful rich media creatives to highlight India’s exotic appeal, generated high level of interest amongst the targeted audience thus in way luring them to strongly consider India as their travel destination.
Results Achieved by Incredible India
The online campaign which was run on digital media platforms presented the following key results:
- There was increased likelihood to consider India as the tourist destination for vacation by 19 percentage points.
- 84 percent accuracy rate in terms of travel decision makers’ target segment was witnessed.
- 90 percent of the response sample used the internet for planning leisure travel.
- More than 75 percent of the response sample perceived India as an attractive destination.
“We were aware of the need to go beyond traditional media, as the internet influences travel decision making in a significant way. The retention value of our traditional media was low due to ‘push advertising.’ It does not support the interaction that the internet can provide.” -Leena Nandan, Joint Secretary, Government of India Ministry of Tourism
Learnings
India got incredible response from the online campaign to target international holidaymakers while minimizing the campaign costs. Thus, the aim of promoting India as the destination of choice and present India as a complete tourist destination could be successfully accomplished through effective online marketing strategies which comprised of running colourful and enticing ads, newsletters and other emails shared with the prospective international tourists.
Hello, Thanks for sharing such a fantastic blog.I really appreciate your blog to share information about India Tours & Vacations Points …Visiting in India is amazing experience. This is amazing place with historical monuments and rich traditional culture. People come from far off places just to get the taste of its beautiful monuments and their architecture.
Hi Vaibhav,
Glad that you liked the blog. 🙂
Dear Jasleen,
Thank you for sharing a blog related to the Campaign.
Kind Regards
Maninder
(Doctorate Research Student, London)