‘The Local has really opened our eyes’

Thinking about giving native advertising a try, but still have questions about the impact? Unsure about how or if you should be marketing to an international audience?

We asked Johanna Mattsson, CEO of Swedish ski resort Lofsdalen, to share her thoughts about publishing sponsored content on The Local as part of our “The Local Explores: Winter in Sweden” campaign.

[caption id=”attachment_39" align=”aligncenter” width=”400" caption=”Lofsdalen CEO Johanna Mattsson”]

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How did you learn about The Local?

We’ve known about The Local for a while because we have contact with expats. And now that we’ve built this Skybar whisky bar we realized we needed to broaden our message beyond Swedish families with children. We had a new offer and a new message — now there’s more to do at Lofsdalen than skiing.

Why was The Local the right channel?

You guys already do such a great job of presenting Sweden to this target audience. But it was an obvious choice considering how much competition there is in our industry. Sometimes we in Sweden have tunnel vision about who we target, and working with The Local has really opened our eyes to this really important segment: internationals who live in Sweden.

Has the article published on The Local had any affect?

Absolutely! We’ve noticed a much more international crowd on the slopes so far this season. There are more and more people who don’t speak Swedish; we hear French, English, Russian and lots of people saying, “Hey I read this article on The Local about the Skybar. How do I get there?”

What was it like working with The Local?

It was great. We didn’t have to do much at all — and the article you guys wrote clearly resonated with your readers. The whole experience has been sort of an ‘a-ha’ moment for us, showing there is real value in really targeting the international crowd. It’s easy to forget that there is this huge market of non-Swedes living in Sweden who want to learn more about the county.

What would you tell others about the importance of communicating with ‘expats’ and internationals?

Well, first of all, expats have chosen Sweden; they’ve moved here, and are interested in learning more about the country. Also, they are often quite positive about Sweden and thus are natural ambassadors for everything Swedish. If they learn about something and have a positive experience here, they can easily share that with networks back home, which opens up a whole new international marketing channel for us — but one that is actually based here in Sweden.

If you would like to have a no-strings-attached chat about how we could help you to communicate with an international audience, please contact us.

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