Promoting a tour experience or a territory is tricky — it easily becomes a flattened message: come visit, it’s nice. So vague and universal that it becomes empty and uninteresting, adressed to a general public that doesn’t really exist.
The solution is to craft a narrative – both visual and textual – that can hook a specific target public with plausible experiences. “What kind of adventure should I expect if I decide to explore that part of the world?”
My solution is based upon a balance: on one side, careful research into the land and the goals of the client; on the other side, a real, in-the-field experience, to find these hooks and to experience directly these plausible adventures.
FIRST: RESEARCH
In order to give a structured answer, I rely on my academic background and methodology, meaning… research, a lot of it. Digging into the archives – any kind of repository of information – allow me to find interesting stories that give depth and shape to the land, starting from the client brief and then widening the scope: internet is a treasure trove, but the most interesting elements of a story usually come from people: I interview, I chat, I listen to their stories, and that’s what gives me an accurate feeling of the land.
Of course, experience is key: my international, varied background, along with speaking French and English, lets me adapt and blend into many contexts very quickly; my expertise with tour operators and the cycling world makes everything even more effective.
Then, with the client we combine all this information with the time constraints and logistics, and it’s time to draft a proper plan.
SECOND: REPORTAGE
Time to shoot. True to a reportage approach, this is a delicate mixture of planning ahead and improvising according to what the day offers. This way, we can maintain the freshness of a plausible experience, all the while we take advantage of the conditions: thanks to the plan, we can adjust effectively depending on the unpredictable conditions (weather, availability of people and places, and so on).
