Last month, national tourism agency VisitBritain unveiled plans for a global marketing campaign. With events such as the Royal Wedding and London 2012 on the horizon, it wants the public and private sector to work together to deliver an additional £2 billion of visitor spend and create an extra 50,000 jobs.
VB is trying to do this against a backdrop of cuts to its overseas representation. So with the number of markets it is present in dropping from 35 to 21, it is turning to digital to maintain a global footprint with consumer, trade and media.
Not surprisingly, Facebook is playing a key role in the way VisitBritain promotes itself to consumers, as evident in a number of recent initiatives. In each case, it has come up with mechanics which are designed to get users to do the legwork.
Engaging students and professionals alike
The first is an application called Unite The Invite which is only available to Facebook users in America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Launched in partnership with STA Travel, Travel CUTS and Transat Holidays, the app (created by Albion), involves a competition to match two Facebook users via the network.
In a nutshell, registered users upload their picture and wait for a match with another user. They are then given a virtual invite to the UK, which is split between themselves and their match. At this point, they post the picture of their match on their wall and ask their Facebook friends to share the picture to help find them. The fastest pair to find each other win a trip to London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh or Cardiff.
Explaining the rationale for the promotion, VB Director of Marketing Laurence Bresh says: “The idea that we're all connected by six degrees of separation has intrigued people for generations. This campaign attempts to prove that theory. To our knowledge, no other tourist board or travel agency has taken this approach to engage students and professionals."
Of course, the beauty of the app (if it works) is that VB gets people chasing around Facebook cajoling their friends.
Check in by mobile
VisitBritain has also joined forces with Facebook to launch an online league table of popular places created by tourists. The project encourages visitors to check in by mobile every time they reach a notable British location and write a review. This information then goes automatically to update a list of the ‘’Top 50 UK Places’’ (visible on VB’s LoveUK site).
VB is hoping the league table will become a barometer of the UK’s most cherished icons, landscapes and attractions. If so, then its value as a PR tool becomes clear. Not only will it be used by consumers to plan their journeys, it will be picked up as a marketing tool by the sites mentioned. It will also develop a degree of media currency on third party websites, which will utilize the league table as part of their own editorial features (an example of this might be the travel section of a newspaper). More generally, VB believes that the ability to "check in" to Facebook Places using a mobile phone, tablet or computer creates a huge opportunity for UK tourist sites to get noticed, particularly if they are proactive enough to encourage visitors to check in and write a review.
Smart and cost effective
Commenting on VB’s use of social media, Head of Digital Marketing Justin Reid says: “It is crucial that VisitBritain continues to embrace new ways to build relationships between international tourists and all UK attractions. We operate in a highly competitive market and Facebook Places offers us a smart and cost effective way of engaging directly with overseas tourists. We will be working closely with all tourist destinations to show them how they can market themselves on the platform and create viral recommendations.”