The best thing I've done (to date)

I studied at the University of Nottingham.  The East Midlands isn’t the University’s only home as Nottingham also has international campuses in Malaysia and China. In the second year of my studies my closest ally headed off to complete the year in China, leaving me with an invite to go over during the Easter break.

Although I’ve always had an interest in traveling, prior to this I’d only ventured as far as Europe and always under the safe umbrella with family or friends (admittedly, the latter was slightly less sturdy). This exotic destination would see me on a lone 24hour trip with 2 transport changes. Also, my part time bar job was not likely to cover the cost of the excursion and so I would need to splurge the savings I’d so frugally amounted. But, weighing up the pros and cons (in hindsight there really were no cons) I committed to my China visit and got stuck into travel plans throughout the first half of the year.

Once there my naïve worries were blown out of the water – my independent trip over had really been that simple and now I was here, wow – well worth every penny. Introduced to the province of Ningbo with a ride on the back of an e-bike to the local town, I realised that the following jam packed three weeks were going to be nothing like I’d experienced before.  I clung on to the back of the bike as I watched other bikers ignore the laws of the road and vicariously dodge red lights and larger vehicles; I looked up at towering lights that held impressive Chinese characters and I smelt the food that street vendors were frying in tin cylinders along the path. But China had so much more to offer:



Generally the street food was tasty...

...But I did not enjoy snails!

I flew to Beijing and saw Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden city and The Summer Palace; I played games in the park with a local salesman and stood on the stone in The Temple of Heaven that supposedly ensures a direct path to heaven’s gate. I partook in a 4 hour hike across the Great Wall of China (This was the most challenging and unforgettable experience) which ended with a zip wire off over a beautiful lake; I travelled on an overnight train to Xian and took the local bus to the Terracotta warriors (amazing!). I tandem biked along Xian’s city walls, saw the infamous panda and watched an iconic fountain show. I saw acrobats defy the restrictions of human flexibility and got roped into an exercise class as I danced amongst locals in a town square; I was ferried through secret passages whilst shopping in Shanghai, took a boat trip along the Huangpu River and dreamed that one day I would eat at the top of the Oriental Pearl. I ventured up to the top of the World Financial Centre, the world’s 3rd tallest building at 492 meters, and gazed at the rich structural variety below. I embraced traditional Chinese culture and spent hours in a tea house drinking delicate tea and saw how China encompassed the West when I partied in a club. I tasted authentic Chinese food, some delicious, others not; picked up some basic phrases and witnessed the disparities that exist between social classes. 


Zip wiring from the Great Wall of China; an exhilarating end to a challenging, fantastic experience


I feel I learnt a lot from this trip. Not only were the cultural deviations fascinating, on a personal level I learnt that great reward is possible when you make the most of opportunities and don’t allow insignificant things to hold you back. Further, I’ve caught the contagious ‘travel bug’ and aspire to add to the experiences I’ve gathered throughout my life. After all, I believe that we live for life’s experiences and it is these that shape us into the people we become. 


Shanghi's distinctive skyline

Eurostar Lamest Excuse Campaign, Who Knew? He didn't.

I recently came across Eurostar’s ‘lamest excuse campaign’; an intriguing and engaging campaign which invited consumers, across different social media platforms, to share their most feeble of reasons for wanting to travel to Europe.

Suggestions included a necessity to replace a dilapidated wine supply; A desire to return a French bread dog to its capital city; and a solution to overcoming the chore of shaving! Across six heats, public vote determined the most popular upload and the lucky creator won a pair of tickets to their European destination of choice. There was further opportunity for one of these six to win a year’s free Eurostar travel through the documentation of their journey.

http://europe.eurostar.com/lamestexcuse/

The aim of the campaign was to educate the audience on the services’ ability to act as a connection to European destinations further afield and to challenge the view that it is a one stop train to France.

So, with this initiative ticking all the boxes of incorporating education, branding and user generated content to share across social media content, why was participation so modest? On the YouTube channel a total of 41 video up loads were made, with the most popular video being viewed only  1, 556 times!

Maybe it was because no one knew?

At a recent interview I attended I discussed this Eurostar campaign, but the guy grilling me on the other side of the table hadn’t a clue what I was going on about. This was bad news for Eurostar; Firstly because my interview was at an advertising agency giant and it’s these peoples’ job to know what communication is occurring out there; and secondly because this person was a regular user of the Eurostar service. This was contemporary news and he was a contemporary customer!

Granted, he may have not been in the primary targeted demographic (I suggest this was students as the campaign was designed to inspire travel within a group of people who were media savvy and had free time but little money)- But the message was still relevant to him even if the participation element was not.

Some important points can be taken from this;

Firstly (and obviously); although it has been found spending resources on maximising frequency is more efficient than spending it on maximising reach (big up to Seth Goddin, ‘Permission marketing, Turing Strangers into Friends and Friends into Consumer’), reach cannot be totally neglected!..

Next; Advertising is education. Like in education, the best results are seen when the information is reworked through different mediums. Not only does this allow the message to be reinforced, it plays a vital role in directing the consumer to your content.

The internet is a crazy content over loaded haystack, and you are just one needle wanting to prick the unsuspecting consumer.  An interested consumer is more likely to act upon information when their attention has been caught by relevant bait…