THE GOAL
To create a website and marketing platform for Tourism Shizuoka Japan that builds awareness of the prefecture and attracts inbound tourists to explore Shizuoka.
OUR APPROACH
From June 2017, Carpe Dean began visiting local communities in Shizuoka. We invited foreigners to come with us on 'Monitor Tours' around the prefecture, to enjoy the local restaurants, attractions and sites. The people who joined came from many different countries, and we asked them to take photos and share their experiences with friends and through social media to promote the area. A professional videographer joined the tour and created a promotional video for the area. Also, working together with locals, we identified areas for improvement and how we could optimise the experiences and tours for inbound tourists.
Utilising all the feedback from tour participants and area locals, our gathered media, photos and videos from 5 different monitor tours, we started the website content creation process in December 2017.
STRATEGY
Carpe Dean researched tourism websites in Japan and overseas to establish best practice for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organisations), worked directly with TSJ (Tourism Shizuoka Japan) to identify priorities and goals, and utilised our combined 40 years of tourism, outdoor and marketing experience to create a profile of the target audience, or who we wanted to attract to Shizuoka and those peoples' values and drivers.
Shizuoka’s key strengths varied, from nature based adventures to historical attractions, so 'Explore' as a creative concept was chosen. Explore was an active word, rather than the often seen passive words like 'Discover' or 'Visit', and this helped differentiate Shizuoka too.
Finally, to keep the site modern and relevant, we decided on an ongoing content creation strategy; basically continuing to visit local areas in Shizuoka and creating new articles and content about the area to give people reasons to go back.
DESIGN
For the design phase, together with TSJ we decided on a modern and international approach, bold, simple, and visually impactful, in order to attract and international audience we wanted. Then, considering Shizuoka's strengths, competition in Japan, and the trend for travellers today to 'get off the beaten track' and avoid the tourist hordes, we created an 'Explore' concept. 'Discover' and 'Visit' are often used, but are quite passive. 'Explore' is more active word and fits better with Shizuoka's huge range of activities and sites.
OUR TEAM
Our management team is comprised of three individuals with 40 plus years of experiences in Japan across marketing and design companies, the outdoor and tourism industry, and starting and maintaining successful businesses in Japan. We bring together talented individuals and connect people with mutual interests, in order to get things done. Contact us today for your next project and let's have a chat.