top of page

A ‘Fan’ of Beating the System: Vienna Tourist Board's masterful channel selection

What do you do when traditional media outlets reject your content due to blanket policies?


This is what happened to Vienna Tourism Board (VTB) when their social media posts on classic nude art were flagged as pornographic by the platform and promptly deleted. While this is widely accepted in museums, it apparently is too lewd for the Facebook algorithm.


After several post deletions and accounts being blocked by Facebook, VTB came up with a creative way to showcase some of the famous art pieces that Vienna houses - OnlyFans.


Check it out here:


OnlyFans is known for its mature and provocative content and by using that as its platform to share art, VTB created controversy in a clever and hilarious way. This breaks through the online clutter and generates earned media as the story is shared across the internet and mainstream media. They achieved 150 million engagements and had 2,500 articles written about their campaign. The kicker? They spent $0 on media. Not only that, they offered their OnlyFans page subscribers free entry to Vienna museums, driving direct results for their campaign.


VTB's OnlyFans campaign is a great reminder to marketers to think differently when faced with restrictions. There are many rules and regulation around where and how we can advertise or market brands and products. These are rightly put in place to protect consumers, but in some cases these rules can seem overly cautious. This give us the opportunity to be creative in our approach.


It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking media is isolated to the traditional platforms that are conventionally used. If we strip it back to its core, media is any platform or space that can help you deliver your message. So, when traditional media channels are too restrictive or overly cluttered, we must think of how we can use the channels differently or look for other less conventional channels that can help us deliver our message effectively.


I hope this case study inspires you to "bare it all" and try out new and daring media strategies that disrupt and conquer!

Comments


bottom of page