Austria Tourism has unveiled a new campaign via Wien Nord Serviceplan, asking visitors to sign a tongue-in-cheek non-disclosure agreement before getting access to the country’s lesser-known winter spots.
The campaign is rolling out across several European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Social activity and influencer partnerships are being handled with Tacsy, and in Germany the idea extends offline via a large billboard in Cologne that shows a heavily pixelated winter scene alongside a QR code that leads to the microsite.
Created by Wien Nord Serviceplan for Austria Tourism, the idea is meant to playfully to steer travelers away from packed hotspots by introducing them to lesser-known gems—but only if they agree to keep them secret.
The concept plays out across social media with short videos teasing insider recommendations from locals while obscuring nearly everything worth seeing or hearing. Locations are blurred, details are bleeped out, and the only way to unlock the info is to head to a dedicated site and agree to keep quiet about what you find there.
Once they’ve signed the NDA, visitors are treated to a large collection of tips from residents, ranging from quieter ski areas and scenic views to under-the-radar spas and mountain huts. The premise is that sharing still happens, just not at scale, and that redirecting attention toward lesser-visited places can spread tourism more evenly during the busy winter months.
“Today, travelers are looking for authentic experiences that go beyond the usual bucket lists. Austrians love to share their favorite places, but some of these secrets are just too good to give away publicly. With this creative approach, we want to showcase Austria’s lesser-known attractions in a humorous way and help disperse visitor flows,” Austria Tourism’s CEO Astrid Steharnig-Staudinger said.
“Who would let people sign an NDA just to look at an advertisement—especially in this day and age? But it makes so much sense: an experience gets so much more special when you are not allowed to talk about it,” Wien Nord Serviceplan creative duo Axel Spendlingwimmer and Michael Maier said.
The NDA itself is deliberately unserious and carries no legal weight.
