#FIRSTTIME

ZIMMER (MOSTLY) FREI

The share of tourism in Croatia’s GDP totals approximately 18 percent, which places us at the very top of countries in the EU, according to that parameter. During the year that has seen travel become more complicated, even periodically banned due to the global pandemic, the tourism sector suffered a huge blow, and with it the entire Croatian economy. As Croatia’s leading bank, Zaba saw an opportunity to help the most important branch of Croatian economy with its initiatives, especially its most vulnerable part - small and micro entrepreneurs in tourism. 

DOBRO DOŠLI, NOT WILKOMMEN

The number of international visitors who come to enjoy the beauty of Croatia has been radically reduced in 2020. So why not address Croatian people who are craving travel and inspire them to discover the off-the radar beauty of Croatia? Many of us have been to London, Kitzbuhel or Thailand several times, yet have never visited stunning domestic destinations such as the sands of Durđevac, the Lubenice beach or Žumberak.

“Kanfanar is in Istria? I always thought it was in Afghanistan…. Aaah, that’s Kandahar.” - Creative Director before he visited prviput.hr for the first time

YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME

There’s a first time for everything! And so has Zaba, instead of communicating its own products and services, for the first time gifted a real marketing campaign to micro and small entrepreneurs in tourism, inviting all citizens to visit a domestic destination for the first time in their lives. The campaign had three phases. During the first one we invited all the small and micro entrepreneurs in tourism to submit their own tourism product via prviput.hr. During the second phase, an expert jury selected winners of the campaign.

During the third phase, out of the 279 submissions we chose 15 and then for each one we created a comprehensive marketing campaign that we used to present them to the general public. That includes everything, from a video spot and photography to billboards and web banners, and all the way to promotion on social as well as in media, plus in Zaba’s ad spaces - bank branches, ATMs and similar. Two of the most attractive winners even got a TV spot! 

The prviput.hr website features extensive profiles of the winning submissions, and also contains the locations of all the tourism entities that applied. And so it became the biggest online platform for promoting hidden beauties and unique experiences across Croatia.

5 STARS RESULTS

Even though at the time of writing only 6 of the planned campaigns have been released, the results are excellent already. Visits to the advertised destinations are up by 19%, while Hotel Frankopan, the first entity that got a TV spot, has recorded income that’s no less than 37% higher than during the same month in 2019. The #firsttime hashtag has spread on social media as a sign of huge interest in our campaign and our selected winners. During a time that has seen dark predictions for the tourism season as its main narrative in national media, our campaign reached a value of 8,6 million kuna.