EXPO 2020 DUBAI

• To introduce EXPO 2020 Dubai, a World Expo event postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the pandemic, to Central European audiences.
• To boost EXPO ticket sales in Central Europe and present Dubai as a safe destination and especially introduce all safety and health precautions to increase traveler confidence in attending a mass global event held during a pandemic.

An extensive integrated marketing campaign on 4 Central European markets over the course of 7 months in cooperation with key travel and media partners in the region.
The campaign consisted of various actions, all taking place simultaneously in Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland:

Marketing action with Pelicantravel.com, top OTA in the region and EXPO authorised reseller, via their advertising platforms in all 4 markets – SK CZ HU PL

• Pelipecky online travel magazine – PR articles: introducing EXPO 2020 Dubai, everything about EXPO tickets, highlights of EXPO pavilions and events, promoting flights and holiday packages with EXPO tickets included, Dubai destination guides
• Competition for EXPO 2020 tickets and free flight tickets to Dubai on each market
• Campaign landing pages in local languages – elaborate microsite with all EXPO and Dubai content in one place, with direct booking options for Dubai flights and holiday packages
• OTA marketing sales push – Pelicantravel.com’s most efficient marketing channels: social media, newsletters, Pelikan booking site homepage banners and push notifications, search results banners; optimising Pelikan booking engines to promote EXPO via highlighting flights and holiday packages with the EXPO tickets included
• Co-op campaigns with other key partners focusing on promoting Dubai – in cooperation with airlines, hotels, Dubai sights, EXPO 2020 country pavilions

Blogger trip – Pelipecky & Refresher SK & CZ

• Media crew attending EXPO 2020 and accompanying events and documenting the newest Dubai experiences to show the best of EXPO and DUBAI in fresh audiovisual content to be heavily used and promoted in the next months of the campaign
• Bloggers from Pelipecky, biggest online travel magazine in CE region
• Videobloggers from Refresher, online lifestyle magazine with more than 3 million users, whose target demographic is young people

Programmatic media & Paid search & paid social ads

• 7 month long promotional campaign via Google Ads, Google Display, Seznam.cz programmatic, Facebook Ads across 4 markets

PR activity

• PR articles in top online and print media portals

REACH

Over 35 million campaign impressions

Pelikan channels reach: 11 million impressions

• EXPO 2020 landing page views: over 250.000
• Pelikan search results for Dubai with EXPO 2020 banner: over 200.000 impressions
• Competition: 1.9 million impressions
• Travel magazine PR articles reach: 210.000 impressions
• Blogger trip report reach: 1.2 million impressions

Refresher reach: 2 million impressions

• Vlogs viewed: 52.000x

Programmatic & Paid ads reach: 22 million impressions
PR articles reach: 117.500 impressions

SALES

Every content and performance campaign was followed by a sales push on the local websites of the OTA Pelicantravel.com in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. During the campaign months of August 2021 to February 2022:

• Dubai became the most popular long-haul destination on Pelikan websites.
• The goal to reach pre-pandemic numbers of overall passengers to Dubai was not only reached, but surpassed by a wide margin. Pelikan increased the number of passengers to UAE by 86% when comparing the campaign period to the corresponding period pre-pandemic (2019 & beginning of 2020).
• The average stay was prolonged by one day compared to pre-pandemic (extended to 8 days thanks to EXPO 2020 Dubai).