Madeira: press relations and influence across four French-speaking markets

Madeira is a well-established destination for Northern European travellers, but its visibility on French-speaking markets, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, remained fragmented before 2024, with press coverage and creator content happening on an ad hoc basis rather than as part of a coordinated, long-term plan. Awareness existed, but it was inconsistent from one market to the next and rarely reinforced by ongoing, structured relationships with journalists and content creators.

Madeira Promotion Bureau appointed our agency in May 2024 to run a combined press relations and influence programme across all four markets at once, under a single strategic brief. The mandate covers proactive press outreach to national, regional and digital travel media, media hosting and familiarisation trips for journalists, and a structured influencer programme built on our proprietary directory of French-speaking travel content creators, an asset that lets us match the right creator profile to each editorial angle rather than relying on generic influencer lists.

The approach treats the four markets as connected but distinct: French, Belgian, Swiss and Luxembourg audiences each have their own press landscape, media habits and creator ecosystem, so pitches and partnerships are adapted market by market rather than duplicated wholesale. Content themes were built around Madeira's nature, hiking, wellness and gastronomy positioning, aligned with what French-speaking travellers are actively searching for when planning an island trip within reach of continental Europe.

Over the first year of the mandate, the combined press and influence activity generated more than 358 million potential contacts across the four markets, a scale of exposure that would have been very difficult and considerably more costly to achieve through paid media alone, and one that keeps compounding as coverage and creator content stay live and searchable well after publication.

The mandate continues on an ongoing basis, with each market tracked through a dedicated monthly impact report and a consolidated global report for the client, allowing Madeira Promotion Bureau to see exactly which market, channel and content theme is driving results, and to adjust its French-speaking strategy in near real time rather than waiting for an annual review.