Hoping to double the yearly influx of tourists to the Russian capital in the next five years, Moscow will launch a youth-oriented advertising campaign this fall targeting European travelers in one typical tourist habitat — the double-decker tour bus.
Global tour operator City Sightseeing, which runs the classic tourist vehicles in Moscow, is set to host the ads on their buses in Rome, Milan, Berlin, Amsterdam, Tallinn, and several Spanish cities, in addition to the Russian cities St. Petersburg and Kazan.
"Moscow has changed immensely, especially in the last few years...The tone has been set by a new multicultural and multilingual generation, unencumbered by stereotypes of the past," Sergei Shpilko, chairman of the Moscow Tourism Committee, said in a statement.
For the face of the campaign, the team settled on Yulia Shapovalova, an English-language anchor at the state-funded international news organization Russia Today.
Moscow tourism authorities contracted with Dublin-based Bold Creative for the campaign's design.
Both in design and strategy, the campaign seems to be aimed at a youthful consumer with an aesthetic formed by trends in social media.
"The treatment and design of the ad involved the use of subtle Instagram style filters and bold typography to help portray a more contemporary and tourist friendly city," said Mark Quinn, CEO of Bold Creative.
The campaign will also strive to build social-media exposure through competitions on Twitter and Instagram.
