Greece Turns to Social Media and Stickers for Latest Ad Campaign

Travelers are slowly returning to Greece with international arrivals expected to reach a record 19.5 million in 2014 and Athens is looking to social media to further boost awareness of the capital city's revival.

Not-for-profit organization Marketing Greece recently partnered with Athens International Airport to promote the diversity of the Greek capital city with a new campaign "I’m an Athenian Too."

The goal is to have visitors share their experiences with their own social media circles. Travelers are encouraged to upload their favorite trip photos to the Athenian app, add a sticker that identifies where the photo was taken or how they were feeling, and then upload the photo to social media.

The "I’m an Athenian Too" campaign is a follow-up on Athens International Airport’s successful "Perhaps you’re an Athenian too" campaign that ran earlier this year and reached a reported 170 million air passengers.

"Our goal is to demonstrate that Athens is an edgy, exciting European metropolis with an ancient heart that is worth spending more than a single day – or stopover on the way to the Greek islands - to explore, beyond the obvious attraction of the Acropolis," explains Marketing Greece spokesperson Thrasy Petropoulos.

Marketing Greece is not the official destination marketing organization for Greece. It is a non-for-profit organization whose shareholders include the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) (80 percent), the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (17.5 percent) and the Hellenic Association of Communication Agencies (2.5 percent).

The organization targets key European markets as well as the U.S., the Middle East, and Asia. It has focused most heavily on promoting Athens since, according to Petropoulos, “it suffered most image-wise during the crisis.”

The following video shows how the Athenian app can be used to share trip photos: