Southkorea. The Seoul Convention Bureau (SCB) website saw a drastic increase in international visitors when it featured several of its Seoul MICE Alliance partners during the ‘MICE Seoul’ week of its current online promotion, the Seoul Sizzling Sweepstakes. Each day, visitors drawn to the website view a special, one-day profile page about a meetings venue in Seoul.
Although the promotion has just passed its halfway mark, SCB Deputy Chief of PR and Marketing Communications Martin Kim says that it has already built up a lot of momentum, “within eight days, our Facebook ‘Like’ numbers doubled, and now we are at a stage where we receive more than 100 ‘Likes’ per day. As the promotion moves along, we are witnessing an avalanche of interest that keeps growing.”
Kim believes that this promotion shows how meetings industry businesses and organizations can utilize social media to increase awareness, but more importantly, create real business connections, “because the meetings industry is not business-to-consumer based, but business-to-business, it can be difficult to increase our social media network. However, as our online network expands, we have more opportunities to connect with our target market through our newfound followers.
The MICE-themed week (August 8-12) of the Seoul Sizzling Sweepstakes spotlighted Seoul MICE Alliance (SMA) members 63 Convention Center, Seoul Marina, Coex, National Museum of Korea, and the Grand Hilton Seoul. Sonia Hensley, International Marketing Coordinator at Coex, touted the event as a great platform for publicity, “social media is a wonderful medium to raise awareness. We liked this campaign especially because we could spread the word about Coex as both an entertainment and MICE destination to both leisure travel and MICE audiences.”
For unique water-based venue Seoul Marina Club & Yacht, the month-long event was also a chance for the relatively new establishment to rapidly connect with a wide range of international visitors. The club’s PR Manager Gillian Choi said, “this was a great opportunity for us, because we were able to let a large audience know that Seoul Marina Club & Yacht not only provides yacht rides and lessons, but superb business meeting facilities to go along with it.”
In return for a day-long feature of their venue, the businesses offered prizes to lucky participants of the sweepstakes, including free tickets to their top attractions, movie vouchers, free yacht rides, and a free night’s stay at the Grand Hilton Seoul. The promotion now moves onto its ‘Exciting Seoul’ and ‘Delicious Seoul’ weeks, where featured businesses will be top attractions and restaurants in Seoul. The promotion welcomes international residents and international visitors to Seoul, and runs until August 26th.
