France Tests Social Media Influencer Strategy to Engage Meetings Industry
Photo Credit: Irina Trofimovskaya, founder of The MICE Blog, is emerging as a thought leader in online engagement with meeting and event attendees. Irina Trofimovskaya
Skift Take
Lots of destinations work with influencers to drive leisure traffic, but France's national tourism board is among the first to contract a meetings and events specialist to engage conference planners. This should inspire other countries and cities to try the same because it positions them as digital innovators to younger audiences.
The meetings and convention industry is jumping on the brand influencer trend.
Atout France, the national tourism development agency for France, launched a new influencer-based promotional campaign this past spring, leading up to the IMEX Frankfurt meetings industry trade show last month.
While destination marketing organizations have been paying influencers to promote their leisure travel experiences to niche audiences for some time, this is new for the group business side.
In February, Atout France contracted London-based Irina Trofimovskaya, founder of The MICE Blog, for a five-month project to drive higher online engagement around the #BizInFrance hashtag on Twitter and LinkedIn. (“MICE” is an industry acronym: meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.)
Trofimovskaya has made a name for herself in the European meetings industry, especially with millennial audiences, with her popular #EventPlannersTalk Twitter chat.
Jerome Poulalier, manager of Atout Fr
