Arctic Adventures - Digital PR Case Study

TESTIMONIAL

“Since our partnership started, they have far exceeded our very high expectations, and we have nothing but positive things to say about the work they have delivered. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with Wolfgang Digital for the foreseeable future.”

Styrmir Thor Bragason, CEO

WOLFGANG DIGEST

In order to turn one of our client’s greatest threats into an asset, we gathered interesting data from the client’s own customers to garner media attention, cementing Arctic Adventures’ position as Iceland’s most talked about tour operator.

CHANNELS

Organic Search

BUSINESS GROWTH

Press coverage and links from more than 60 different domains

THE CHALLENGE

While 2018 was Arctic Adventures’ most successful year to date, 2019 proved to be much more challenging due to a series of unavoidable macro-factors that directly affected the business’ bottom line.

WOW Air, Iceland's budget airline (the cheapest and easiest way for tourists to get to Iceland) disappeared overnight. Soon after, several UK travel operators ceased operating flights to Iceland due to Brexit-related stressors.

This meant getting people to Iceland was going to be a much harder sell, so we needed a way to get Arctic Adventures’ name out there and rekindle the public’s interest with a thought-provoking PR campaign that would prevent the tour operator from making a loss YoY.

OUR STRATEGY

Utilising ‘social listening tools’ such as Google Trends, Twitter trending topics, and BuzzSumo, we could tell that one of the biggest talking points related to Iceland was Climate Change, and the associated deglaciation (glaciers being one of Iceland’s top attractions)

To change one of Iceland’s greatest threats into something we could use to our advantage, we created the Environmental Impact Survey. We asked 250+ Arctic Adventures customers provocative questions about tourism’s impact on Iceland’s environment. The answers showed worrying insights that turned into a meaningful piece of content with graphs and figures (see blog post) and a press release highlighting the concern for Iceland and its environment, the negative aspects of tourism, and climate change consequences.

We sent the press release to 100+ news sites and niche blogs. We concentrated our outreach efforts mainly on international media outlets that focus on nature, the environment and sustainable travel as well as local press in Iceland.

New York Times article

MEDIA COVERAGE

Upon release, the blog post about Arctic Adventures’ research was covered in in several well-read travel and news websites. Offline coverage was also achieved. Geographical Magazine featured the research on a full page in their print magazine, complete with mention of Arctic Adventures.

Several months after our initial outreach efforts, the New York Times picked up, mentioned and linked to the research. Many other news sites 'piggybacked' on the story, resulting in an increase of the total number of websites / news outlets referencing / linking to the original piece.

COMMERCIAL RESULTS

The press coverage helped Arctic Adventures cement its position as Iceland’s most well-known tour operator in a time when it was difficult to garner attention, resulting in a year-over-year increase in website visits and bookings over the following quarter.