With the slogan “Nature wants you back.”, Switzerland Tourism ST focused its 2017 summer campaign on nature lovers. This is one of 13 visitor types that ST defined as part of its 2016 segmentation programme. The nature lover wants to escape the daily routine and recharge their energy in nature as well as get to know the local culture.

The ad for the summer campaign featured an office worker who becomes more and more authentic and wild in nature – a transformation story. With over 11 million views, the ad became a YouTube hit and served as a gateway to the MySwitzerland.com website. The dramatic staging of the ad played a major role in the online success of the summer campaign.

New online platforms

New, innovative offers on online platforms such as wildlife watching, Alpine hut finder and My Swiss Experience helped strengthen the message behind ST’s campaign. The major success of the summer campaign (especially the ads) is also reflected in the number of visits to the website as well as the number of overnight stays: in July 2017, the national tourism website recorded a new monthly record of over 3.2 million visits. The total number of visits in the summer months of May to October amounted to 15.3 million. Overnight stays in the summer rose year on year by a total of 1.2 million. Further, MySwitzerland.com offered 121 lodgings close to natureon the website.

Facts and figures
Summer   2017 2016
Budget CHF million 46  42.6
Share of total budget % 49.1  46.4
Target markets   global global
Number of brochures distributed million 4.5  18.0
Visits to MySwitzerland.com* million 15.3  15.2
Participants on ST press trips   1 182   878
Media contacts (readers, viewers, listeners) billion 5.4  4.3
overnight stays influenced by KAM million 2.9  2.6 
*including city campaign content