Our Tourism Media Iguazú Falls Travel Guide for Expedia has just passed an important milestone: 1 million views on YouTube!

This makes it currently our second most watched video after New York, and the statistics show some encouraging facts:

  • Most people find the video directly on YouTube, instead of finding links to it on other websites.
  • Not only does the travel guide get many viewers, the retention rate is also high, with thousands of people watching it right until the end (consumer behaviour that is quite rare these days for online content).
  • The video is actively shared on all social media, from Facebook to Google+.
  • It even has gone viral among our Asian viewers. Especially the Taiwanese, who are clearly loving the Iguazú video. This proves that our videos are not only targeted at the US market, but are published and shared everywhere.

Pre-production

I was involved in the pre-production of this video, which means selecting which places to include, providing the cameraman with all the necessary information and travel advice and coming up with a possible scenario for the final travel video.
Our media production managers, Sandra and Rohan, managed to get all the permissions from local sources in place, which meant countless emails and phone calls to both Argentina and Brazil.

Filming

Jon Reid, our cameraman, had his hands full trying to capture the waterfalls from all possible angles. Jon wrote: “Funny story about this shoot: I arrived on time but my suitcase was a day behind me, so we shot half of the video with no tripod!” Not only was half of his equipment missing, he also had to deal with the mist and spray of the tumbling water, which made shooting up close a real challenge.

He also has a tip for budding photographers:
“The park opens at 8 am, too late to catch the sunrise, but it stays open until 6 pm, so you can catch some great sunset/twilight shots. Make sure you keep an eye out for the humming birds! They’re amazing here.”

Script writing

Back in Brisbane, I reviewed the footage he came back with and was elated. It instantly brought me back to my backpacking days, as I have visited the falls from both the Argentinean (Cataratas del Iguazú) and Brazilian (Foz do Iguaçu) side during a trip around the world in 2004. Jon’s footage beautifully captures the sense of awe I felt.

Fact checking and recording

After writing the script, I had it fact checked by Dillon and approved by the team from Expedia. Jacquie then composed the music to suit both the powerful thunder of the falls and the tranquility of the rainforest. The sound track also complements the voice-over. We always make sure we get a voice-over artist from the region itself, so the accent is authentic.

Editing

With all this done, Sawyer spent a few days editing the video and publishing it on the Expedia YouTube page. Combining the images was no easy feat, if you take into account that most shots feature masses of water!

A special thanks goes out to the directors of Tourism Media, Matt and Nick, who were involved in every step of this process and made sure it met our high standard of quality.

I loved every minute of it and am as impressed by the result as I am with Iguazú Falls itself.

I hope you are too!