Vienna Tourist Board

The city of Vienna is consistently voted as one of the best cities to live in, frequently coming out on top of the Global Liveability Index, which measures factors such as culture, environment and infrastructure.

With the introduction of the city’s 2025 Visitor Economy Strategy, Vienna is working on redefining tourism and the effects of it on the capital, prioritising sustainable development and growth whilst balancing the happiness and needs of both its visitors and residents.

• The Vienna City Card, which allows users to seamlessly get around the city via public transport, offers travellers a range of discounts and rewards across attractions and food and drink, encouraging visitors to take the green approach when it comes to exploring the Austrian capital.
• Vienna's commitment to sustainability extends beyond its environmental initiatives to encompass innovative urban planning strategies aimed at improving the quality of life for its residents. Traffic-calm zones, due to be introduced by 2025, will limit car access to the city centre, to encourage pedestrian-friendly streets and reduce congestion and pollution.

Lemongrass Marketing, a B Corp-certified travel communications agency, delivered the UK campaign for the Vienna Tourist Board's off-season stunt.

Coverage included the BBC, Forbes, The Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Euronews, The Daily Express, The National, The Sun, plus BBC Radio Scotland and TayFM.

Reposition Vienna as a compelling year-round destination and tackle the perception that winter is quieter and less exciting beyond the Christmas markets. Our job was to draft the press materials and win coverage for an idea that lived or died on execution.

We split the campaign into two waves

Most stunt PR fires once and is forgotten. We ran outreach in two distinct phases - first when the Vienna Tourist Board issued the invitation to Dull's residents, then again once the trip had actually happened and there were real people, real photographs and real reactions to work with.

One idea, two news cycles. The second wave is where the reach was.

We built the itinerary to carry the story

Guests attended Vienna's iconic balls, learned to waltz, went ice skating and dined across the city's best restaurants. Every element was chosen because it directly contradicted the "dull in January" premise - the itinerary was the argument.

We went for Scottish titles first, then national

Local and regional Scottish press had the strongest natural hook, and their coverage gave national desks the validation to follow. We also secured a press trip for a journalist travelling alongside the Dull residents, producing first-hand review coverage rather than a rewritten release.

55+ pieces of coverage, 500+ brand mentions and a total reach of 983 million - with 34 pieces dedicated solely to the campaign across two months.

Coverage ran across print, online and radio, including the BBC, Forbes, The Independent and the Daily Mail. For a destination trying to shift a seasonal perception, a joke that lands is worth considerably more than a brochure that doesn't.

Does stunt PR work for destination marketing? It can, when the stunt directly argues the point the destination needs to make. Vienna's campaign generated 983 million in reach because the idea itself - inviting a village called Dull to prove Vienna isn't - was inseparable from the message.