Here is a short video – in Greek – with Panos from Aegean Sky where he explains the value of being online.

We made this video as part of our “I want you… online” campaign. You will recall that the cheekily titled “I want you… online” encourages travellers to leave feedback to hotels regarding their digital needs using a little card we created.

Even though Greece boasts some lovely small and medium sized hotels, the vast majority is not online. Travellers cannot find them and they cannot book online.

Panos is a SoMaFusion client and he recognises the value of being online and understanding his guests’ needs. In this short video he explains that by creating a website, analysing booking trends and his guests feedback he has managed to turn things around.

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The Greek campaign is progressing and Theodora is doing her thing these days.

You will recall that we have started an outreach campaign aimed at Greek hoteliers. As part of that campaign Theodora is on the phones talking with small and medium hotel owners and managers up and down the country.

When we approached her to do the work she was a bit worried. “Is this about sales?“, she asked to which we most emphatically answered “No“!

The principles are simple. Introduce us, discuss, connect. The whole point of the campaign is outreach and engagement rather than sales.

| Introducing SoMaFusion |

We are a relatively new company and there is something intrinsically different about us when it comes to hospitality. Our hospitality services are specialised and offer the whole spectrum – from digital communications to pricing policy. Not something you find often.

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We are delighted to announce the next step of our Greek campaign.

Even though Greece boasts some lovely small and medium sized hotels, the vast majority is not online. Travellers cannot find them and they cannot book online.

Good hoteliers want to move forward but in most cases they are not certain that their customers consider things like a good website and an online booking facility as neccessities.

In the normal SoMaFusion spirit of working together we are launching an action today cheekily titled “I want you… online”

Travellers are encouraged to leave feedback to hotels regarding their digital needs using a little card we created.

The action is also on Facebook and interested parties can also use our banners if they want to. In case there are questions we also created a FAQ.

If you are a Greek language speaker we would love to see you around.

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The amazing feedback card and banners were designed by our favourite artist.

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DOWNLOAD THE PRESS RELEASE (.pdf) * In English * In Greek *
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Greek Assistant Minister of Culture and Tourism G. Nikitiadis (pic from his official website)

The Greek Assistant Minister of Culture and Tourism, Giorgos Nikitiadis, called the Golden Bay Hotel in Malia today and then wrote a letter to congratulate the hotelier, Manolis Argyrakis for his offer of value – added services to travellers who were affected by the Greek strikes and the ash from the volcano which prevented them from returning home.

As we’ve written in the past and as it was covered by VIMA, a major Greek newspaper, Manolis Argyrakis of the Golden Bay hotel in Crete, is one of the clients for whom we initially wrote the SoMaFusion white paper on Policy and Crisis Communications for the Hospitality Sector. In that document we discuss the needs that will be created due to strike actions and other external factors and how it is important for hospitality sector people to analyse these needs and adapt their services accordingly.

Manolis took the advice seriously and he hasn’t regretted it. Many of his guests have been affected either by strike action or by the ash cloud. He instituted a policy according to which no client would be left without accommodation if they couldn’t vacate due to extenuating circumstances.

The Greek Assistant Minister of Culture and Tourism called the Golden Bay Hotel today and chatted with Argyrakis and my colleague Manolis Mavrantonakis of SoMaFusion. We are ecstatic that the Assistant Minister congratulated our client and had a few lovely words of encouragement and thanks for SoMaFusion and our white paper as well.

The Assistant Minister of Culture and Tourism, Giorgos Nikitiadis wrote: (more…)

A lovely surprise this morning as I was walking past Trafalgar Square (London as always) with the latest WWF project.

The London Ice Bear is in Trafalgar Square from Friday 11 December until Sunday 20 December, slowly melting over that time to reveal a dramatic bronze skeleton.

Inspired by the Arctic landscape, it’s a life-sized representation of a male polar bear in hunting pose.

Everyone is invited to touch the ice sculpture. Artist Mark Coreth hopes that by touching this sculpture audiences can become sculptors themselves and make a direct connection with the bear and its icy Arctic kingdom, now under threat from man-made climate change.
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I particularly like the way it’s all been communicated by WWF in various way.

The sculpture
It’s difficult to describe how striking the sculpture itself is. And the cool think is that you want to go again and again to see it in various stages until you can finally see the skeleton underneath the ice.

The people
You are approached by lovely young people who wear the WWF jacket and talk to you about what the bear symbolises. No talk of joining the organisation or supporting them financially (which I appreciated no end). Instead if you are willing to give them your e-mail they will send you all the information. Notice how the young man in the photos is not holding any paperwork. They all have little handheld devices where they note down your e-mail.

The goodies
If you are willing to give your e-mail the nice young people give you an wrist band and a Christmas card with a cute polar bear. Just as a thank – you but I love how when I returned to the office people asked me about the wrist band. Smart way to cause a conversation methinks.

The flickr group pool
You are encouraged to join the Flickr group and upload your pictures of the polar bear. The most interesting ones are also uploaded on the WWF IceBear website. We already added ours of course.

The streaming video
It was great fun. They are actually streaming the whole melting process on their website – Needless to say I called Manolis and I was waving at the camera grinning like mad. Epic win for WWF here.

All in all I think this is an ingenious interactive installation. Absolutely e v e r y o n e is fascinated by it, people love touching it and photographing it. Thumbs up for WWF.