Incredible India Reaches Out to

International Travelers Online

Case Study, 06.03.08

The Government of India Ministry of Tourism wanted to promote India as the destination of
choice amongst international travelers, with a campaign presenting the country as a complete
tourist destination. The Ministry partnered with Microsoft to broaden the international reach of
its advertising campaign. Online advertising improved the overall performance of the Tourism
India campaign by engaging directly with its target audience, improving campaign retention
among viewers, and branding India as an exciting and exotic travel destination.

Campaign Objectives
The Ministry of Tourism wanted to:
 Promote India as a desirable travel destination to the international travelers.
 Build the Incredible India brand.
 Drive visitors to the country.
 Reach travelers in a cost effective manner.

Campaign Details
With the need to generate a high level of interest and get its target audience to strongly consider
India as their next travel destination, while minimizing campaign costs, online advertising was
viewed as the best means of achieving this goal.  “We believe the Internet is a more cost
effective advertising medium for us,” confirms Leena Nandan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Tourism, Government of India. 

With its popularity and global reach, Microsoft, along with Initiative, partnered with the Ministry
to produce an online advertising campaign across the MSN/Windows Live platform that ran in
the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific from October 2006 to May 2007.

After developing colorful creative that highlighted India as an exotic destination and generating a
compelling media plan that optimized the placement of the creative, the campaign ran on MSN
Homepage and MSN Channels such as Travel, News, and Entertainment using a series of rich
media banners. Opt-in e-mail newsletters were sent to Windows Live Hotmail users who had
previously expressed an interest in travel.
   

Results
Microsoft commissioned market research agency Cross-Tab to assess the effectiveness of the
India Tourism campaign on MSN/Windows Live. Results showed an increase in favorability and
travel intent towards India, positive perceptions towards the country as a travel destination, and
revealed that consumers view the Internet as a valuable tool for planning travel.
 High recall – 58 percent of those recalling the India Tourism campaign on
MSN/Windows Live were more favorable towards having a holiday in India, compared to 34
percent of those who did not recall seeing the campaign.
 Positive perception - Over 75 percent of people viewing the campaign agreed that India
‘has many heritage sites’, ‘is rich in culture’, ‘has beautiful scenery/ natural environment’ and
‘is an attractive destination overall’.
 Positive attitude towards advertising on Microsoft – 83 percent agreed ‘advertising on
MSN is a good way to speak to international travelers’.
 Right target audience – 84 percent were decision makers for family holiday travel.
  
Conclusions
The India Tourism campaign was successful in reaching the right target audience and branding
India as an exciting and attractive travel destination. Microsoft provided the Ministry with direct
access to important international markets and helped improve the performance of the overall
campaign. Furthermore, the campaign enabled the Ministry to reach out and engage directly with
its target audience.
“MSN is a very popular site and we have enjoyed a good partnership with them. With the help of
Microsoft, our global campaign performance has improved by more than 100 percent in the last
year,” says Nandan.