The campaign ”Curious about the Neighbor” where Västerås, Norrköping, Linköping, Örebro and Karlstad marketed each other was launched in the summer of 2020. The campaign ran on social media and the response was beyond expectations. After two years of marketing the cities to each other’s residents, it is now time to take the next step, and our sights are set on neighboring Norway.
“"Norway is an international local market that we see will have great importance for us as a travel destination in the future, partly due to the increased interest in sustainable travel. Therefore, it feels good that we are continuing this courageous collaboration now that we have identified the opportunity to develop the work towards the Norwegian market. Together we become stronger both through the collaboration itself but also as a reason to travel to Sweden," says Maria Östling, Karlstad Municipality.
With a joint Facebook channel, digital advertising and PR, the neighbors will arouse curiosity and increase Norwegians' awareness of the cities. It is about highlighting everything from the well-known attractions to more unknown, wonderful experiences that the cities have to offer. The campaign, called "Curious about Sweden?"* started during week 41 and will last for a year.
“"This is a unique collaborative project where we are five cities represented who dare to try our hand. We are doing this on our own and together we have different marketing skills in our organizations that we now have the opportunity to combine, which is an incredibly rewarding way of working. We are very excited to see how Norwegians receive the campaign now that we are getting started," says Sofia Favaro, project manager, Visit Västerås.
For Norrköping and Linköping, the choice of local markets is particularly well suited.
”"Linköping and Norrköping have over the years been a bit of a blind spot for Norwegians if you look at the guest night statistics and compare them with, for example, Örebro and Karlstad. Linköping has a fairly even distribution of Nordic residents in terms of guest nights, so the collaboration of course means a lot of potential," says Jörgen Nilsson, head of tourism, Visit Linköping & Co.
”"In Norrköping we have Kolmården, which has primarily attracted many Finnish visitors to Norrköping over the years. We know that Norwegians like Sweden, even if they haven't really found their way down to us in Östergötland yet. But now we are coming together with the ambition to change that," says municipal councilor Reidar Svedahl (L), Norrköping Municipality.
The campaign is a collaboration between the destination organizations Visit Karlstad, Visit Linköping, Norrköping Municipality, Visit Västerås and Visit Örebro.
According to the press release.
