In a sign of how seriously the Inspired by Iceland tourism campaign is being taken within the country, Iceland’s two biggest phone companies, Siminn and Vodafone, are offering free overseas calls all weekend to help Icelandic residents spread the word to friends and family.
Customers using their Siminn or Vodafone landline phones to call mobiles or landlines in other countries will not be charged at all this Saturday and Sunday. The companies are offering the loss-making service in support of the Inspired by Iceland campaign. The idea is for Iceland to ‘phone the world’ this weekend and inspire friends and family to visit.
The Inspired by Iceland tourism marketing campaign is two weeks old already; but its main push began this week with Thursday’s Iceland Hour broadcast and the release of a new video, which has already been seen 600,000 times and can be viewed here.
In addition to the video hits, the campaign has already generated 1.5 million SMSs and 5 million Twitter messages. The campaign has 17,000 Facebook ‘friends’.
I’ve always enjoyed my time Iceland, and agree that it’s a great place to visit, but from spam to telemarketing? I’ll be watching my mailbox and looking under my wiper blades for the next phase. :)
The campaign has gotten a fair amount of ridicule here in the states….
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/06/04/pm-dinner-party-download/
Hirsch: So the manager of tourism in Iceland asked Icelanders all around the world to e-mail everybody that they knew a message of love about Iceland and what a great place it is.
Newnam: Wait. So let me get this straight, they’re using spam to make themselves more popular? Way to go.
Hirsch: It’s ironic, I admit.