Unrating Vienna follows up subversive Unhashtag Vienna tourist board campaign
On the back of its popular 'Unhashtag Vienna' digital detox campaign, the Vienna Tourist Board has launched 'Unrating Vienna' that asks the question 'who decides what you like?'
The Vienna Tourist Board asks 'Who decides what you like?'
The Vienna Tourist Board is making a name itself in terms of ingenious ads that urge tourists to break free from their digital bubbles.
Last year, its 'Unhashtag Vienna' campaign urged tourists to ditch Instagram for a hashtag-free visit to its historic city.
Targeting the social media tourist, who only embarks on experiences to share online, the campaign urged them instead to see the city unfettered by viewfinders.
As part of the 'See Vienna, not #Vienna' advertising campaign, it launched a three-day stunt at the Belvedere Palace and art gallery. Given 1.4 million visitors visit the space every year, many of whom drawn in by Gustav Klimt's 'The Kiss,' the tourist body hung a replica of the famous artwork shrouded by a scarlet hashtag, under the disguise of the original.
After visitors raised concern that their visit had been ruined by the 'giant hashtag' they were then directed to the adjacent room where the real painting was hung.
The digital-detox tourism topic the company is tackling this time is 'online ratings' - the collaborative online jury that determines the popularity of an attraction.
According to the Vienna Tourist Board, 95% of holidaymakers read at least seven reviews before they book a holiday, meaning people trust the opinion of total strangers.
The campaign aims to humorously suggest that subjectively, online ratings aren't always right, and tourists should try to break free from their digital bubble to stumble upon chance encounters.
In a series of ads erected across the London underground, Waterloo station and digital bus stops, the Vienna Tourist Board has portrayed five fun and beautiful Viennese moments, places and objects, including Schönbrunn Palace, Prater Park and a wine tavern called Heuriger Schübel-Auer.
To highlight how bad ratings or polarising comments can drag an experience down, real comments and ratings from online are printed on top of the images.
In one, a romantic boat ride on the Danube got branded 'boooring' by one unhappy customer who smacked the experience with one star. Another critical reviewer found the lawn outside the front of the Schönbrunn Palace 'messy.'
In a similar vein to the Klimt stunt, the Vienna Tourist Board has brought 'Unrating Vienna' to life for three days at the Leopold Museum and MuseumsQuartier in Vienna.
To show how art has the capacity to split opinion, the museum has agreed to have the worst (and anonymous) ratings projected onto the side of its building.
The out-of-home campaign will play out across 30 London underground stations, Waterloo train station and 35 digital bus stops. It will also be supported by social media activity.
