International influencers, filming and now sporting events abroad, during the last months, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) has implemented a quite disruptive marketing strategy. This weekend, adding its most recent action by setting a total of 300 seconds on the electronic billboards of the stadium, La Cartuja, in Sevilla. There, the final of the Copa del Rey was played between FC Barcelona and Athletic Club de Bilbao.

For the ICT, in addition to being a key market, this possibility also takes advantage of the television audience that, year after year, tunes in at this meeting. According to the latest measurements, more than 15 million viewers watch it around the world.

Intense Advertising

The advertising was divided into 20 15-second segments that were displayed on the LED screens that form a perimeter around the pitch. Appearing during the first half and during the last 45 minutes.

In this way, images of the Esencial Costa Rica brand inviting to book direct flights and with the legend “Sustainable Tourist Sanctuary” appeared on the screen as players from both teams moved the ball on the pitch.

“Having the presence of the country brand in a sporting event like this, where athletes of the level of Lionel Messi are playing and therefore, followed by millions of fans around the world, it allows us to expose the name of Costa Rica. As an option to visit and keep it in the minds of Spanish tourists,” said the head of Promotion of the entity, Ireth Rodríguez.

The official added that this action is part of the strategy that the ICT has been developing for the Spanish market, as well as the European one. To do this, it is using the services of the public relations agency The Blueroom Project.

“Making a tactical call to action and inviting to book one of the two existing direct flights to our country and thus enjoy natural beauties, gastronomy, live the essential values of life and reconnect, after more than a year of Pandemic,” she said.

Disruptive strategy

In recent weeks, the Institute has shared other bets it has made to make the name of the country go viral. For example, in order to get closer to the nations of the Iberian Peninsula, the ICT recently coordinated the arrival of the television travel program “Planeta Calleja”.

Between April 3 and 12, the production team of the renowned show visited the country to explore new places. Three years ago, the program had already recorded an episode in the national territory.

Planeta Calleja is a television program, dedicated to travel, where its presenter, Jesús Calleja, travels around the world accompanied by a Spanish celebrity. It has a high audience in Spain and other countries.

Its production is in charge of the television station Cuatro and it debuted on the small screen on April 14th, 2014. Since then it has been on the air for almost a decade, with eight seasons.

Characters from different fields have participated in it, such as the footballer Andrés Iniesta, the musician David Bisbal and even the current President of the Government of Spain Pedro Sánchez.

Influencers

Prior to this, American audiovisual producers were invited to the country to create a promotional video. This was shared on the YouTube channel, which has more than 1,000,000 followers, the ICT recently explained.

As part of this program focused on the visit of influencers, currently, the climber April Davidson is in the country. The athlete explores various corners of the country with the aim of highlighting the country among her 96,000 followers.

“In this program of influencers, attractive profiles that have the most impact within the North American market (United States and Canada) are selected and studied, then they are officially contacted.

“Depending on their availability, they are invited to live the experience of the destination, sharing it from their point of view in conjunction with the MMGY advertising agency and the ICT Marketing department,” the Institute explained at the time.