Yandex Ads helped Visit Saudi promote Russian tourism in Saudi Arabia with strategic ad placements on Yandex Maps.
Click, swipe, or tap to learn about Saudi’s most thrilling destinations, events, and latest happenings with Yandex Maps.
Read about the first-ever international partnership between Yandex Ads and Visit Saudi, introducing the Russian audience to modern Saudi Arabia.
Objective
Russian tourists are generally unaware of the numerous events and festivals available in Saudi Arabia and tend to think about the country only as a destination for religious pilgrims.
But there’s so much more to this country and our goal was to expand this mindset by sharing what modern Saudi Arabia is all about via the Riyadh Seasons Events. We chose to highlight these events through the ever-growing Soundstorm music festival.
Solution
The collaboration between Yandex Ads and Visit Saudi encompassed a virtual journey revealing all the hidden mysteries this magnificent country bestows.
Yandex Ads created a unique opportunity for a broader audience to click, swipe, or tap through destinations, events, and activities.
Our design incorporated an interactive experience using dynamic landing pages showcasing Saudi Arabia’s main tourist attractions and events. The user’s journey began with a tap on an object in Yandex Maps.
This action took them to a landing page with detailed information about Saudi Arabia’s happenings and events.
While using this site, Russian visitors learned that incredible, undiscovered adventures in Saudi Arabia are just a click away. Yandex Ads and Visit Saudi teamed up and presented an easy and exciting way to check out all the latest happenings inside Yandex Maps.
Our pioneering approach brought festivals and events to life and illustrated the fascinating experiences Saudi Arabia offers its guests in a completely new format.
Soundstorm: The Middle East’s largest music festival
The Soundstorm Festival is one of the most significant music events in the Middle East, with over 100 artists performing across seven stages, and was used as an example in one of the campaign’s highlights.
The festival attracts the best artists and performers and speaks volumes about Saudi Arabia’s evolving music scene.
To elevate this festival, among many others, Yandex placed an indicator on the map, which, when clicked, visually transports users to a customised landing page with all the latest events in Saudi Arabia.
Formats
For this campaign, Yandex Ads leveraged three ad formats to bring the experience to life:
- Object on the main screen: A visually appealing object with the inscription “Storm of Emotions” appears on the main page of Yandex Maps.
- Premium billboard en route: A visually appealing turn table (or mixing consoles) is positioned along the user’s path.
- Banner in traffic: A banner appears during traffic jams with the message, “Escape from the hustle and bustle of the city,” visible to the user for five minutes.
Results
This campaign proved to be a remarkable opportunity for cross-cultural cooperation and was a massive success with over 13.5M unique users and more than 36M impressions. See the stats below:
The results speak for themselves: the campaign generated significant growth in the number of clicks (978%) as well as search queries (+69%), with a click-through rate (CTR) of 10.5%.
Key takeaways
Our partnership and this campaign reflect a bridge in connecting cultures and highlight cultural exchanges and technological collaborations.
With this significant step toward diversifying its global tourism outreach, Visit Saudi partnered with Yandex, Russia’s leading technology company, to create an exclusive virtual experience.
It has garnered the attention of Russian tourists wishing to check out the most exciting happenings in this exotic location and prominent Saudi influencers who play an essential role in reaching the local market.
The high level of local engagement underscores the campaign’s resonance and effectiveness in highlighting Saudi’s global tourism appeal.
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