On Monday, 3 July 2023, in London, Ljubljana Tourism received the prestigious Travel Marketing Award in the category of social networks, which is one of the most coveted marketing awards in the field of travel and tourism, for its profile on the social network TikTok and the sports spectacle Volleyball on the Ljubljanica River. This is already the third award this year in the field of digital communications and in connection with the mentioned spectacle.

After two domestic awards, the SPORTO award and the gold award at the DIGGIT competition, this time, the extraordinary success of the project on social networks was also recognized internationally.

Ljubljana, creative and innovative

At Ljubljana Tourism, they launched their @visitljubljana profile on the TikTok platform in cooperation with Dunking Devils Studios in July 2022 to increase the visibility of Ljubljana as a creative and innovative destination among the younger audience, especially Generation Z. The number of users rose rapidly, and the profile experienced an extraordinary breakthrough with a posted recording from the »Volleyball on the Ljubljanica River« event.

The footage of the sports spectacle on the floating volleyball court in the middle of the Ljubljanica River was seen by over seven million people in less than a day and by over 38 million in a week. By the end of 2022, the post had reached over 53 million views, 6.5 million likes, more than 38,000 comments and 157,000 shares. The clip was shared by the official profile of the International Olympic Committee and many world-famous sports television stations and websites, such as ESPN, TSN and the Bleacher Report. An additional video of the spectacle had an even greater reach, and with over 73 million views, 3.2 million likes and more than 8,000 comments, it became the most viewed video of Ljubljana Tourism on the TikTok platform so far.

Outstanding promotion

The video has brought outstanding promotion to Ljubljana as well as to Slovenia and sports. Roughly estimated, its media value has exceeded 1,000,000 euros. The high numbers prove that with the successful use of social networks, we can effectively strengthen the brand's reputation and international recognisability, which the evaluators of applications for the Travel Marketing Awards also noted.

»Volleyball on the Ljubljanica River« was a side event of the Men's World Volleyball Championship hosted by Slovenia last August. The Extrem agency is behind its conceptual design, bringing innovative sports projects both on the Slovenian and global scale time and again to Ljubljana.

The Travel Marketing Awards

Since 2009, the Travel Marketing Awards have been presented by the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Travel Group for the most original, creative, innovative and successful travel and tourism campaigns of the previous year, contributed by brands, teams and individuals in advertising, marketing, digital and public relations. Each application is evaluated by a committee of experts and only the best works are shortlisted for the award. This year, 71 tourism and travel organizations and 36 agencies competed for awards in 34 categories.