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Propel Conference, Graz – a Game-changer in Travel

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The city of Graz, Austria, has hosted the first ever Propel Conference, aimed at helping travel bloggers take their business to the next level.

The conference, for intermediate-level bloggers, saw expert speakers sharing many years of experience and success, providing attendees with:

  • the tools to create quality content, and
  • strategies to realise the value of their work.
Mayor of Graz Siegfried Nagl
Propel Conference, Graz, Austria – Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl gets a selfie with bloggers attending the conference

Propel Conference was sponsored by Graz Tourism, and held at the Grand Hotel Wiesler, in Graz, and saw 20 hand-selected bloggers receive in-depth guidance in how to succeed and flourish in the blogging world.

It was opened by the Mayor of Graz, Mr Siegfried Nagl; and has been described by one attendee, Kathryn Burrington, as “an absolute game changer.”

The Propel Conference was organised by Sarah and Terry Lee of digital agency, Captivate, and Su Höller of Graz Tourism.

Captivate and Propel Conference founder, Terry Lee said: “We are thrilled with the success of the conference. We have known for some time that there is a need to professionalise the blogging industry and now, with Propel, that platform exists.

“This can only benefit the travel industry, as bloggers’ levels of quality rise, their professionalism increases and, as a result, tourist boards and travel brands see greater returns when working with these reliable bloggers.”

Propel Conference takes off (l-r): Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl, Propel Conference and Captivate founders, Sarah & Terry Lee

“It was also a pleasure to hold sessions for members of Graz’s local travel industry, helping to educate them on how to work with, and maximise the benefits from bloggers and digital platforms.”

Susanne Höller, head of marketing at Graz Tourism, said: “It was amazing to host the first Propel Conference together with the talented Captivate team here in Graz. The conference days were packed with professional information and tips and the evenings were happy gatherings of 30 bloggers and speakers in various locations around Graz.

“I am sure it will make an impact on Graz with so many stories being shared on social networks already. And for us as a destination marketing organisation (DMO), we are proud to be at the forefront of digital/influencer marketing within Austria.” 

Following the conference, which was held from May, 25–27, the bloggers enjoyed post trips around Graz and the wider Styria region.

The event was hailed a great success by a host of happy delegates:

“Congratulations on a fabulous conference, my head is full of information and inspiration but more importantly, answers. I now have a plan for moving my blog forward,” said Suzanne Jones, of The Travel Bunny.

“So grateful for the incredible #PropelGraz experience, congratulations for holding a mind-blowing event,” said Carly Hulls of blog, Austrian Adaptation.

“I’ve been blogging for eight years, and have been pretty successful, but the things I’ve learnt over the last few days will take my blog to another level,” said Kathryn Burrington, of Travel with Kat.

Currently the team at Captivate is working on the next Propel Conference and will announce where and when it will be held in the coming months.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Images available here: http://bit.ly/PropelGraz and should be credited to (c) Graz Tourismus_Werner Krug. Contact us for many more hi-res photos.

Captivate Wins Prestigious Award for Digital Influencer Campaign

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Award winning Digital Influencers Captivate accept award

On American Independence Day 2017, Captivate were crowned winners at the Visit USA Media Awards in London.

Captivate co-founder, Sarah Lee, and travel writer Ella Buchan accepted the Digital Influencer Award for the inspirational #DriveUS1 campaign.

Members of the national and regional US tourist boards, press and bloggers converged at the St Ermin’s Hotel, in London, to celebrate the industry’s very best travel media initiatives promoting the USA to UK travellers.

The team was praised by the judging panel for generating quality articles, video and social media content, as well as driving fantastic results.

“Fantastic results.”

Presenting the award, Visit USA’s Emma Forrest said: “The judging panel were really impressed by the quality, as well as the sheer volume of content produced, and the phenomenal amount of work that was put into organising the project.”

The ground-breaking Captivate campaign delivered 13 stories, 11 videos and more than 2,100 social media updates reaching an audience of over 3.5 million people.”

#DriveUS1 showcased US Route 1 – the road running the length of the eastern United States from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida – and highlighted Maine, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Daytona Beach, Orlando and the Florida Keys to a huge range of UK travellers.

During the six-week campaign, Ella shared tips and inspiration for readers to take on US Route 1 as a new road trip adventure for themselves.

“Innovation, quality and professionalism.”

 Captivate co-founder, Sarah Lee, said: “As thrilled as we are to win, it is just as wonderful that innovation, quality and professionalism in influencer marketing is being recognised. The online world is tomorrow’s world, and we are delighted to once again be at the forefront of excellence in the promotion of our clients.

“Our success was down to the combined efforts of Ella and the Captivate team. This teamwork was crucial to creating large-scale brand awareness from the exciting content Ella produced. We also thank the judges for acknowledging this achievement.”

Learn more #DriveUS1 and see all the content from the campaign here: http://livesharetravel.com/us-road-trip-travel-across-america/.

You can see more on the Visit USA Media Award winners here. 

Captivate and US tourist industry in ground-breaking partnership

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Creating the next iconic US road trip route…

We’re on the road with our latest campaign. Captivate has teamed up with award-winning travel writer, Ella Buchan, for a great US adventure and an epic project.

Ella has hit the road from Fort Kent, in Maine, in the far north of the US travelling to Key West at the very southernmost point.

Staring on September 20, and ending on November 4, Ella will drive US Route 1, on the eastern seaboard – a journey of more than 2,500 miles for our #DriveUS1 campaign.

With a concept created by Captivate co-founder, Sarah Lee, and our writer on the road Ella Buchan, #DriveUS1 aims to bring the US1 road trip the iconic status it deserves, and showcase the highlights of various states and regions along the way to a broad range of UK travellers.

Sarah Lee, director of Captivate and editor of LiveShareTravel, said: “This is a unique chance to give our readers a taste of the next big thing in US road trips and allow them to feast on the many wonderful destinations Ella will discover.

“This is a groundbreaking collaboration between the US tourist industry supported by Brand USA, Hertz, Three Mobile, and Captivate – a collection of the UK’s best digital travel influencers and writers.”

“Ella will not only open our eyes to a new adventure, she’ll provide the inspiration and key information to allow our readers to take on US Route 1 for themselves.”

Ella Buchan at the start of US1 kicking off her epic road trip in Fort Kent, Maine

Ella says: “I’ve travelled widely in the US but haven’t spent much time on the east coast. There are so many stunning landscapes, beaches and cities steeped in history, and I’m excited to be on the road.”

Ella will be taking in Maine, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Daytona Beach, Orlando and the Florida Keys. She will bring the deep autumn colours of New England into view before they give away to the rolling vineyards in Capital Region and North Carolina, and end in the glorious fun and sunshine of Florida.

Her adventures will be published on a host of Captivate team sites covering culture, history, food, adventure, luxury, value for money and more. Join us for our great east coast adventure and see more on the US road trip content hub.

Follow on #DriveUS1 as we bring you tales from one of the most thrilling road trip adventures the US has to offer.

Follow our great American road trip DriveUS1

Blogging wins in the UK’s biggest travel media awards

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Travel blogging has come a long way. This much was clear with the award at the recent Travel Media Awards.

No longer the preserve of the gap year traveller or digital nomad, professional travel bloggers are bringing such success to clients that they’re winning national awards. 

The Travel Media Award for Innovative Campaign and Content was hotly contested between national publications and large PR companies, as well as a blogger collective.

And the #LoveSabah iambassador campaign was crowned the winning project, marking a fantastic achievement for the world of online media.

The award was presented to the overjoyed team in front of an audience of more than 200 travel industry representatives. With five of the six bloggers in the campaign team also part of Captivate, the award marks a fantastic accolade for both organisations.

The winning LoveSabah team winners of the Innovative Campaign Content Travel Media Award 2015

It was the first time the Travel Media Awards, descended from the British Travel Press Awards, had a campaign and content category – a recognition said awards director, Giles Harper, that: “this area of travel media and the impact it’s having is growing.”

The campaign was commended by the judges – a panel of more than 50 travel industry and media experts – for generating unique blog, video and social media content and driving fantastic results.

The campaign that brought new eyes to Borneo

#LoveSabah was held across ten days in November 2014. The objective being to highlight Sabah, in Borneo, as a wedding and honeymoon destination.

LoveSabah winner in the Travel Media Awards highlighted weddings and honeymoons pic: Sarah Lee

Five members of Captivate, including directors Sarah and Terry Lee and Abigail King, plus Becky Padmore and Niamh Shields were joined by leading wedding blogger, Elizabeth Muhmood Kane and videographers Lea Amiel and Nicolas Libersalle. They visited Sabah and Brunei with Royal Brunei Airlines, and generated social media, blog posts, cinematic quality video and an eBook. The campaign generated 52 million opportunities to view Borneo across social media channels in just two months.

Captivate founder and iambassador’s UK director, Sarah Lee, said, “I’m very proud to have organised and led such a dedicated team of professional bloggers and digital influencers. Once again we have driven huge bookings for our clients through compelling content and large scale brand awareness – the holy grail of marketing.”

The awards that kept on giving

At the same awards, another member of the Captivate team became the proud winner of the Blogger and Vlogger of the Year award.

Kash Bhattacharya, founder of Budget Traveller was commended for his inspirational work in helping transform the world of travel media. 

About the Travel Media Awards

The Travel Media Awards have been created in recognition of the hugely influential role today’s travel media play in the holiday and business travel decision-making process.

Entries are judged by some of the UK’s most influential travel industry figures alongside leading travel writers and editors. Click here to view the full list of awards and winners.

Germany is celebrating its traditions and wants you to join in

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While Germany’s soccer success is known the world over and its history has been well documented, Germany also brims with fascinating living traditions that are far less well known.

For 2015, Germany invites the world to #joingermantraditions by showcasing its widespread cultural traditions that live on in today’s modern Germany.

Working with the German National Tourist Office UK and Ireland (GNTO), three Captivate bloggers who specialise in covering cultural events will each spend a week in Germany this summer, exploring and reporting back on the traditions they find (and participate in!).

Captivate director, Abigail King says “It’s a great chance to explore the country’s history and culture in depth since each of the bloggers involved specialise in these subjects and have visited Germany before.”

Becki Enright from Borders of Adventure, Michael Turtle from Time Travel Turtle and Abigail King herself from Inside the Travel Lab will cover their experiences in real time, asking for tips from their audiences, as well as covering their trips as longer form pieces on their blogs when they return.

Highlights include where to find the best festivals, where the locals go, food markets and how to find talented artisan craftspeople.

In addition, the GNTO’s social wall, is another way to see how the wider social media community is exploring Germany’s traditions and customs.

Klaus Lohmann, director of the German National Tourist Office UK & Ireland said: “Germany’s traditions and customs are alive and thriving in the 21st century. We look forward to following Captivate’s discoveries through social media and feel sure the #joingermantraditions project will inspire other people to explore Germany too”.

Visit the GNTO’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/visitgermany to find more about Germany.

Luxury travel in Austria – spotlighting AUSTRIA’S FINEST Experience Hotels

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It’s a busy, busy time for Team Captivate. While we’ve finally hung up our #30activedays hiking and biking boots this week, we’ve started two new campaigns.

The latest, starting this weekend is a tour of three of AUSTRIA’S FINEST Experience Hotels, and our luxury travel bloggers will be reporting on the collection to an audience of UK-based travellers with a penchant for indulgence.

Austria's Finest Experience Hotels, The Stanglwirt, one of the subjects of a Captivate campaign

AUSTRIA’S FINEST Experience Hotels is a stand-out collection that mixes Austria’s unrivalled hospitality with the finest in luxury, amenities, cuisine, spas and gorgeous surroundings in locations ranging from mountain landscapes to lakeside settings and the heart of the capital.

This weekend sees Becky Padmore, of Global Grasshopper, hopping off to Saalbach-Hinterglemm, in SalzburgerLand to discover the Gartenhotel Theresia, an ecological retreat serving only organic cuisine.

A couple of weeks later Abigail King, of Inside the Travel Lab, will be reporting on the Warmbaderhof, in Carinthia, and its sister hotel the Karawankenhof. Situated right on the pulse of the Warmbad-Villach thermal spa resort, these stylish properties offer unlimited, complimentary use of one of Austria’s top thermal spas.

The project will round off in September when Sarah & Terry Lee, of LiveShareTravel, head to Das Central, a Tirolean hotel featured in the upcoming Bond film Spectre.

This is the second AUSTRIA’S FINEST Experience Hotels campaign Captivate members partnered with the Austria National Tourist Office on. Last year’s smaller campaign whose objectives were to build awareness of these luxurious, individual hotels, resulted in:

  • Plenty of return on objective: five published posts with thousands of page views, two videos with more than 11,000 views.
  • Opportunities To See (OTS) of more than one million people on social media.
  • More than 11 times return on investment.

Download the full case study of that campaign here.

Keep your eye on the #12hotels hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ for impressions from the luxury travel bloggers’ stays.

A nice sit down and a cup of coffee – #30activedays takes a Travel Coffee Break

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For the past three weeks the Captivate team has been walking, cycling and even kayaking their way around Europe for the #30activedays campaign.

Marking the 30th anniversary of Headwater Holidays, we’ve been exploring France, Italy and from tomorrow, Abigail King will be pulling the home leg in Austria’s lake district.

But this week we paused to enjoy a cuppa and a chat on the Travel Coffee Break Hangout On Air. See the whole thing here…

Get on your bike (or feet, or kayak for that matter) and follow #30activedays on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Want to know more about Captivate campaigns? Contact us.

Europe’s best natural “gym” – #30activedays with Headwater Holidays

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It’s not every day we get chance to celebrate something really big. So when Headwater Holidays asked us to help them celebrate their 30th birthday we were delighted to put together a major campaign for them.

To help celebrate turning the big 3-0, leading walking and cycling specialist, Headwater, has launched a brand new 30-day relaxed “hike and bike” relay event, taking in some of the most beautiful corners of Europe! Working in partnership with Captivate, Headwater has commissioned an elite group of award-winning bloggers and digital storytellers to walk and cycle through undiscovered France, Italy and Austria, burning calories in real time and gently getting fit and healthy in a way they never could even in the swankiest of gyms!

30activedays a partnership between Captivate and Headwater Holidays | pic: Becki Enright

The 30th celebrations kicked off in the Loire (Headwater offered its first holidays here back in 1985) where Becki Enright followed a gentle triangular route through the heart of the great Loire Valley pedalling past majestic chateaux, pretty sleepy villages and fields full of sunflowers, before handing over to Michael Turtle who will this week try his hand at canoeing, cycling and walking as he combines three exciting – and totally flexible – itineraries on the ultimate Dordogne activity holiday.

Mark Rose of our video partners Global Fire Productions, will be next, posting videos from Alsace as he strolls past romantic castles, Gothic churches, ancient forests and exquisite “gingerbread” villages. Moving on to Italy, Captivate’s resident foodie Niamh Shields is destined for culinary heaven as she samples Piedmont’s Gastronomic Barolo Walk.Here, in arguably the most sophisticated corner of Italy, spectacular hikes and luxury hotels are complemented by world-famous wines and fabulous local cuisine: prized white truffles, chocolates and hazelnuts all adding to its epicurean appeal!

Our milestone trip ends in Austria where Abigail King will be found cycling along traffic-free lakeside trails (great for families and first-time cyclists), perhaps taking time to try some of the many other activities on offer – boat trips, watersports, mountain rail rides – before a pre-dinner swim in her hotel’s state-of-the-art spa.

Throughout their travels, the bloggers will be using all forms of social media to share their “under-the-skin” experiences, via the #30activedays hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.

Headwater’s managing director, Tina James, explains the thinking behind this exciting new venture: “We all recognise the importance of exercise, however we know that, for the majority of people, it’s a case of forcing yourself to do something you don’t really like (let’s face it, spending hours running on a treadmill or lifting weights is not exactly fun, however motivated you are!) Plus, a lot of us feel self-conscious in a gym; a study by Sport England last year revealed that 75% of women are put off exercise for fear of being judged by others. So, we wanted to find a way to use our position to help show how all ages and abilities can combine gentle exercise with fabulous holidays – even adding gastronomic meals, great wines and luxury hotels to the mix! With over 150 holidays to choose from, in 20+ countries, there really is something for everyone – and, with each holiday graded in terms of activity level (we even offer electric bikes on some cycling routes!), they can be enjoyed equally by parents, children and grandchildren.”

Abigail King, Captivate’s lead on this project, describes what drew her in to the project. “I love looking for creative ways to combine the work of our team with companies whose message I believe in, so having worked with Headwater before, I was thrilled to design this project.

As a former doctor, I’m well aware of how important it is to exercise regularly. But as a busy business owner, I’m well aware how easy it is to let good intentions slide!

For me, the secret is to have something to work towards and something to look forward to at the end. The “beneath the surface” and relaxed activity approach of Headwater holidays is just the kind of kick into action I need.

But not everyone’s the same, and that’s where the strength of the Captivate team comes in. We have hardcore adventurists who have joined the TA as well as those whose fascination with food and local ingredients leads them to hit the paths and explore.”

You can follow #30activedays with the hashtag on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.