Executive Summary

Demand for international travel was poised to increase significantly in 2022, and Visit Iceland needed to increase awareness and preference as a destination over other locations. But Iceland is traditionally outspent by competitors who have bigger mass-media budgets, so they needed to break through with low-cost, high-impact, culturally relevant content.

On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg released a video announcing that Facebook would be rebranding as Meta. People all over the world commented on Mark Zuckerberg’s idiosyncratic delivery, the idea of living in a fully virtual world, and the new Meta logo.

Visit Iceland seized the conversation about this virtual reality-based future to remind travelers that it was already here and way more visually stunning. To capture the global conversation, we created a parody film in record time introducing the “Icelandverse.” The video featured Chief Visionary Officer, Zack Mossbergsson, who explained the Icelandverse’s many features: water that is wet, skies you can see with your eyeballs, cute birds to watch, and even real humans.

The story was a culturally relevant, reactive moment that gained 6 billion global impressions. Media coverage discussed how it was a brilliant tourism campaign and made consumers want to go to Iceland. It was covered by top-tier media channels around the world, including The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, The Economist, Washington Post, Daily Mail, and CNN.

Objective - The Change We Needed To Make

Demand for international travel was poised to increase significantly in 2022, and Visit Iceland needed to increase awareness and preference as a destination over other locations. But Iceland is traditionally outspent by competitors who have bigger mass-media budgets, so they needed to break through with low-cost, high-impact, culturally relevant content.

We were asked to create a high-impact campaign with earned-first potential with a launch video and a feature on Visit Iceland’s website.

Approach - The Conversation We Created

On Oct. 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced a “revolutionary” new virtual world called The Metaverse. The launch video became an instant meme as the world debated Mark’s robotic movements, the Metaverse’s questionable graphics, and the broader implications of living in an entirely virtual world. Just over a week later, the “Icelandverse” was launched.

In response to the Metaverse launch, Visit Iceland introduced the “Icelandverse,” a physically immersive, open-world experience that’s literally just the country of Iceland. The parody social film featured Chief Visionary Officer Zack Mossbergsson reminding travelers that Iceland is visually stunning, actually real, and can be experienced today — no silly-looking VR headsets required.

With Zuckerberg-ian charisma, Mossbergsson highlights many of Iceland’s groundbreaking features, like water that’s wet, skies you can see with your eyeballs, and real humans to connect with. The film ends with an invitation for travelers to experience the Icelandverse and its not-so-new technology anytime they want, because it already exists — and has for millions of years.

At a time when audiences were craving humor and every destination was contending for traveler attention, we chose a tongue-in-cheek approach, nodding to this significant cultural moment to help us stand out from the usual travel destination message track and tell a nontraditional story to a broader global audience.

Our key messages focused on the launch of Icelandverse and on reminding travelers around the world about the superiority of actual reality in Iceland. We invited them to discover breathtaking surroundings and endless landscapes in Iceland’s amazing reality, themselves.

Results - The Change Made

The Icelandverse quickly gained global attention as the video racked up over 6 million views on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and yes, even Facebook. Within 24 hours of going live, Mark Zuckerberg himself weighed in, commenting, “Amazing. I need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon.” And with over one thousand global news stories from major outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, The Economist, Washington Post, and CNN, the campaign earned over 6 billion media impressions — leading Inspired by Iceland to declare “Icelandverse” their most successful marketing campaign ever, just 10 days after the film’s launch on social.