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Since October 6th of 2011, Costa Rica has been advertised on the pages of publications such as National Geographic, The New Yorker and USA Today about 9 and half million times.
The national Tourism Board of Costa Rica (ICT by its acronym in Spanish) is satisfied with the results of the Million Dollar Gift of Happiness campaign, according to a broadcast by news station Radio Reloj 94.3 FM. Ireth Rodriguez, marketing director at ICT, explained that the initial social media push of the campaign was intended to get people talking about our country.
“We are very satisfied. For instance, the number of followers in our Facebook Timeline went from 8,000 to more than 143,000. Moreover, the number of social mentions on Facebook shot up. Daily mentions of our Facebook page went from an average of 252, when we started the campaign; at this moment we have a daily average of over 1,000 -that’s really more than a fivefold increase.”
By way of comparison, Facebook Insights for The Costa Rica Star currently registers 513 social mentions across the Facebook page on a weekly-adjusted basis.
The marketing and advertising campaign, which Ms. Rodriguez mentioned specifically targets North American visitors, has spent $3.3 million of the $6.4 million originally allocated. This includes 80 vacations that have been given away on Facebook and other social media channels. A new campaign started in March and will continue through February of 2013.
A previous article in The Costa Rica Star took an in-depth look into the Science Behind the ICT Gift Of Happiness Campaign and the advertising firm behind it, 22 Squared.
