Skift Take
The multi-year "Holland: The Original Cool" tourism campaign is a lesson in modern video storytelling, incorporating long- and short-form content pushing both national and local messaging. It also shows the value of taking risks to engage audiences with branded content.
Holland has raised the bar for tourism content marketing with a new 17-minute short film capping off the Holland: The Original Cool video series launched in 2013 to help increase U.S. visitation.
Aside from its length, "The Tale of Kat and Dog" is also unique in tourism promotion based on its storyline about a young American female named Kat. During a business trip in Amsterdam, she's tormented by memories of her dead brother who had always dreamed of one day visiting Holland.
The short film and 16 Holland Cool marketing videos preceding it would typically have been overly expensive for the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) to produce on its own. To gather the necessary resources, the NBTC formed the Holland Marketing Alliance in partnership with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and Amsterdam Marketing — all of which are striving to boost U.S. traffic.
The creative direction behind the Holland Cool content focuses on American travelers who think hipster-friendly cities such as Portland and Brooklyn might be cool. The videos, however, point out that the Dutch have been celebrating artisanal food, cr
