Everybody knows the internet loves cats, but Expedia and The Bahamas Tourist Office partnered on a campaign that proved people also love #SwimmingPigs. Of course, vacationers the world-over know that the Bahamas are one of the planet’s premier warm-weather, tropical beach destinations. However, the British Commonwealth nation (consisting of more than 700 islands covering more than 180,000 square miles of ocean space) wanted to pique the traveling public’s interest beyond its most well-known destinations of Grand Bahama and Nassau.
We worked with and the Expedia.co.uk team partnered with The Bahamas Tourist Office to develop a “Travel Yourself Interesting” campaign focused heavily on social media – specifically using amazing video content of the swimming pigs of the Exuma islands to drive interest in a Facebook sweepstakes. With a soon-to-be-viral video featuring the swimming swine, travelers in the UK and Europe were asked to share their thoughts on the silly sounds these porcine paddlers made underwater.
The swimming pigs proved to be an instant hit! In the first ten days, the campaign page received 1,914 new fans/follows – and overall the promotion saw more than 5,800 people enter to win a trip for two. Over 18,000 people engaged with the campaign online by liking or sharing the page and many shared user generated content depicting the happy hogs. As decreed by the Internet, “swimming with the pigs” now rate right up there alongside “running with the bulls” on many a traveler’s bucket list. If you would like to see other campaign examples from destination marketing organizations, check out success stories from our partners.
