F RO M T H E D R AW I N G B OA R DTO T H E D I G I TA L L A N D SC A P E

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Tania Stoyanof is the founder and owner of Black Label, a premium organisation committed to bringing visitors to New Zealand and delivering them a travel itinerary of exclusive New Zealand experiences.

Tania’s client-focused, tourism and event experience-rich background is the foundation for her belief that “when you entrust Black Label with your New Zealand Experience, you can be assured you’ll experience the unique nature at New Zealand’s heart …and never ever forget it!”

I N T RO D U CI N G YO U TO TA N I A STOYA N O F

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I N T RO D U CI N G YO U TO TA N I A STOYA N O F

Underpinning Black Label is Tania’s career experience including 15 years of strategic planning, project management, event management and global marketing including:

• Head of Premium Sector Marketing , Tourism New Zealand

• Sponsorship & Event Manager, Telecom Xtra• Brand & Sponsorship Manager, Samsung NZ • Marketing Manager, NZ Herald online• Marketing Manager, Kiwibank

Combining this range of skills and a wealth of personal connections to the right people and the right places.

NZ number one on US luxury travel agency ‘hot list’ - Tourism New Zealand, 22 Sep 2014

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Black Label is a luxury DMC based in Auckland offering premium customised itineraries with a luxury twist.

T H E B L ACK L A B E L E X P E R I E N CEwww.blacklabelexperience.com

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T H E B L ACK L A B E L E X P E R I E N CEwww.blacklabelexperience.com

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Black Label creates premier customised travel experiences to an authentic and exclusive New Zealand that money cannot buy but connections can deliver.

We are the people in the place, finding and creating authentic and memorable experiences that are uniquely NZ and uniquely ours.

I N T RO D U CI N G YO U TO B L ACK L A B E L . . . T H E V E RY B E ST O F N E W Z E A L A N D

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We provide arrangements for everything from boutique accommodation and private transport to fast-track immigration for VIP’s, unique sightseeing tours, bespoke Maori culture experiences and special interest packages - sports, gastronomy and wine, film crews, education, adventure.

T H E B L ACK L A B E L SE RV I CE

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Black Label is an emerging business - we launched at the end of 2014 and have made solid progress with industry partnerships and product development.

We have realised that for us digital marketing isn’t always dependent on unlimited company resources; we have shown that measurable gains can be achieved from having a small team (and initially small budget!).

D I G I TA L M A R K ET I N G FO R A STA RT-U P

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SU CCE SS

How

We use techniques and tools that fit our needs and budget to schedule our social media posts, target events and find influencers. Some of the tools we use include Hootsuite and Buffer ( for scheduling and curating content), Feedly and Evernote ( for saving and reviewing news feeds) and trending hashtags on Twitter.

Where

As a start-up with a small business, we have a limited budget and manpower for marketing so we maximise the reuse of other content and resources. With analytics, targeted social media posts and the ability to adapt we have been able to steadily grow our followers and convert those followers to partnerships, leads and customers.

What

We are active on Twitter (regular tweets), Linkedin and Instagram and vary our content to suit each platform.

We send out a monthly newsletter to our database.

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G LO B A L R E ACH

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T W I T T E R P O W E R E X A M P L E S – I N F LU E N CE R S

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T W I T T E R - T R AV E L I N F LU E N CE R CO M I N G TO N Z

Geography now is a travel vlog (www.youtube.com/GeographyNow) which has over 330,000 subscribers from all over the world and it grows in subscribers every day.

Every year he chooses a new location to go to - “Geography Go”- in which he meets up with subscribers and has THEM show him around THEIR home countries! This year after much deliberation he chose both Singapore & New Zealand. In addition to making a video on the Youtube channel he also does regular daily posts on social media sites Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, each with a substantial following.

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First and foremost, it has been important to have a consistent brand - our Black Label logo is the same across our printed material (business cards, brochures), website and social media. This has made it easy for people to find and recognise us.

We have noticed other businesses have vague Twitter handles, or accounts that do not correspond to their company name so we have ensured our own contact details are visible and there are social sharing buttons on our content.

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T I P 1 - CO NSI ST E N T B R A N D I N G

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The challenge for us as a luxury brand, by our very nature, we aim to be exclusive whereas digital marketing turns this on its head because it is viewed as a success to have the largest audience possible.

However, we have used that ‘dream and discover’ ideal to evoke desirability in what we offer and social media has allowed us to sell the experience first, not the physical products or services.

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T I P 2 - SE L L T H E E X P E R I E N CE

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For best practices, we implement a digital marketing/content schedule with blog topics and content ideas for social media.

It’s important we vary our content to match each platform and keep it fresh - if our followers are reading the same information on our website, Twitter and blog why bother following us? We review our schedule and keep track of what has worked or not, adapting for successes and failures.

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T I P 3 - H AV E A CO N T E N T P L A N & R E V I E W I T

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As a small business, it can be difficult to break through the noise on social media. We have recognised the value of mobile accessibility - especially for our Chinese clients - and having a multi-lingual responsive website and geo-tagging our content so we stand out from our competitors.

The luxury sector is fortunate in that we have some really great visuals (photos, videos etc) to use. We research key hashtags and stay on top of trending topics.

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T I P 4 - I D E N T I F Y M A R K ET O P P O RT U N I T I E S

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We use our site analytics to create marketing personas: Who are our followers? Where do our clients come from? What do they like and respond to? This has been a big factor for us for behavioural targeting and raising our exposure by creating products to match interest. Examples:

• We have had great success aligning with events....we gained good online traffic back to our blog from International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) in Cannes last year by writing a blog about luxury bucket list options in NZ and sharing it to the official news feed during the event.

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T I P 5 - A L I G N W I T H E V E N TS

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7 T I P S FO R M E A SU R A B L E P RO G R E SS

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7 T I P S FO R M E A SU R A B L E P RO G R E SS

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7 T I P S FO R M E A SU R A B L E P RO G R E SS

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7 T I P S FO R M E A SU R A B L E P RO G R E SS

We also participated in a charity event for Kiwi Gold Sailing for Rio Paralympics which had a short lead-in time; 24 hours prior to the event when marketing by the organisers was finalised we received 241 impressions for the event on Twitter. The event itself also meant our company branding was displayed and our participation bought immeasurable exposure amongst the event guests who were part of our target market.

When Air NZ launched their flights to Buenos Aires this tied in well with our South America packages so we could combine the brand energy of an established company with our own product.

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To activate engagement, we follow and share content from key influencers who are great at building awareness of NZ as a destination e.g. • Scott Eddy recently visited NZ and is very

active on social media for travel brands so we shared a lot of his content.

• Sidharth Malhotra, a Bollywood star, was named the first Indian ambassador for Tourism NZ and documented his stay on social media and this fits well with our plans for expanding our reach into Indian markets.

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T I P 6 - F I N D I N F LU E N CE R S TO SH A R E CO N T E N T

• James Cameron, the filmmaker, is well known and therefore his testimonial about NZ as a destination adds weight to our own content and substance for our filmmaking clients.

We also have commenced as a NZ contributor to an established luxury travel website with more established fan bases than what we have and one of our articles was featured on their Home Page in rotation for 3 months alongside The Plaza Hotel in New York.

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LU X T R AV E L L E R – I N F LU E N CE R SH A R I N G CO N T E N T

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LU X T R AV E L L E R – I N F LU E N CE R SH A R I N G CO N T E N T

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7 T I P S FO R M E A SU R A B L E P RO G R E SS

Other key takeaways include a simple A, B, C vision for Black Label that any company can use:

T I P 7 - B L ACK L A B E L’S ‘A -B - C ’ V I SI O N

A = Authenticity;

B = Be Responsive;

C = Creative;

We tweet and share things that are relevant to OUR brand.

Digital marketing is a 2-way connection. We thank mentions and retweets, we email suppliers to let them know we have featured them on our social media and we respond to emails and enquiries promptly.

We vary the type of format (photos, videos) and type of content (quotes, events, products). We participate in Twitter chats such as #ExpediaChat as they have a large active fan base. There are a number of easy to use editing programs for professional looking social media posts (Canva, Fotor, Picmonkey, Piktochart) and also designers who freelance for businesses who may have limited budgets.

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For us, it’s important to follow new social media trends and platforms so we can make informed choices about what will fit our brand and long-term plan.

We are learning about the differences between Chinese and Western social media channels and adapting our content for the client.

SU M M A RY

We don’t just look to travel and tourism companies for inspiration - we follow forums and news feeds for education, tech, sports, entrepreneurs, agriculture etc for ideas and innovation across digital marketing so we can try and market through our clients, not at them.

www.blacklabelexperience.com

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PO Box 90353, Victoria St, Auckland 1142, New Zealand m +64-27-236 4927 p +64-9-3780087e tania@blacklabelexperience.com w www.blacklabelexperience.com

“I believe your travel should be a ‘one-of-a-kind’ experience. You can be sure Black Label will open your heart and your mind to a journey through

a place you’ll still be remembering and talking about for years to come”