Comms8 is happy to announce the introduction of a brand new weekly blog series!

Our new series takes a look at the campaigns used by tourism boards across the globe, and offers a brief, succinct overview and analysis on each one.

To kick things off, we’re looking at South Africa Tourism’s YouTube series, ‘Bakkie Stories’ released in October. 

Overview:

The series followed three influencers: TV and radio presenter Maya Jama, Instagrammer Alice Living, and travel blogger/vlogger Saunders Carmichael-Brown AKA Saunders Says.

The 14 part series follows the three influencers’ trip across South Africa from Johannesburg to Cape Town “the long way round”.

Each part of the series averages around 1:50 mins, and features an exciting activity or exploration of a South African city.

Analysis:

When you consider the activities and influencers involved in this series, the target audience of this campaign is clearly travellers in their 20s.

The video series, in most aspects is great. The activities, and influencers themselves are of a wide variety and tick many boxes.

More specifically, the influencers come from a variety of platforms, and the activities cover a range of topics that should attract a wide audience.

Also, presenting the series as a road trip is great. It gives the viewer reason to follow and pay attention to what is happening in each city.

However, one fault of the series is each part’s length. Averaging at roughly 1:50 mins a part, they do not have enough time to thoroughly put across their message.

Part of influencers’ success is that they authentically relate with the average viewer. The following that these influencers have is built directly though their relatability and strong connection to the average person.

There is a reason 70% of millennials value non-celebrity endorsements over celebrity endorsements. It’s that they consider influencers more as peers.

With such short episode lengths, the series does not take full advantage of an influencer campaign, as they do not allow the influencers personalities to truly reflect in the video.  Consequently, the ‘Bakkie Stories’ campaign presents itself as a rather impersonal spin of an influencer campaign.

What to take away:

If you’re presenting an influencer marketing campaign, play that campaign to the influencers strengths. They’re a focal point of the campaign and should be taken full advantage of. For example, if an influencer comes from a musical background, include a musical element in the series.

Put simply, treating influencers as celebrity endorsements defeat their purpose and is a waste of potential.

That being said, the campaign had a great selection and variety of activities and was framed in a way that made viewers want to follow.

All in all, we give it a 3/5- Check it out below!