-Fourth and final round of popular VisitBritain advertising goes live at Heathrow
-VisitScotland’s ‘Meet the Scots’ integrated with GREAT campaign across all terminals
Today four new animated VisitBritain GREAT campaign images of Scotland are due to go live across Heathrow to coincide with the festive season and attract more international visitors to Scotland. In a joint initiative combining VisitScotland, VisitBritain and Heathrow, the adverts will be showcased across 326 digital screens in the airport’s five terminals for the next three months.
The animated images make up the fourth round of GREAT campaign advertising to feature across the airport this year as part of a 12-month £4 million advertising package granted by Britain’s busiest airport to help VisitBritain promote the country’s nations and regions throughout 2014. The Scotland images are the first of the four rounds of advertising to be animated.
The adverts tie in with VisitScotland’s ‘Meet the Scots’ campaign, featuring real Scottish people and their local travel tips. Spanning the themes of Food, Countryside and Heritage, the new adverts aim to introduce visitors to authentic Scottish ‘ambassadors’ and the experiences they represent. Ethical shellfisher Guy Grieve from the Isle of Mull stars in the food-themed advert, echoing Scotland’s Year of Food & Drink 2015, and Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes is pictured in the dramatic countryside around Loch Assynt, while wildlife expert Caroline Warburton appears near Glenfinnan Monument. In the Heritage-themed advert, battle re-enactor Robert Ballantyne is pictured by Stirling Castle.
This activity is part of a 12-month airport advertising campaign organised by VisitBritain and Heathrow to promote Yorkshire, Wales, and the North East and South West of England. For the third round of advertising in September, Heathrow asked consumers to vote for either the North West, the North East, the Midlands or Northern Ireland to be featured in the next round of advertising. After a very close Facebook competition and backed by huge public support, the North East triumphed and five images of the region have been showcased across the airport for the last three months. During the Tour De France, VisitBritain placed ads of Yorkshire across the airport as it hosted the Grand Depart and, prior to that, images of Cornwall, Glastonbury and Devon immediately after the floods.
Joss Croft, Marketing Director at VisitBritain said:“Integrating two tourism campaigns with such fantastic exposure at Heathrow is an opportunity we simply couldn’t miss. Scotland offers great experiences and a warm welcome to our international visitors. This campaign will raise awareness and inspiration to travel, and continue the strong growth in inbound tourism, generating economic value and jobs across Scotland.”
John Holland Kaye, Heathrow’s CEO said: “With 255 weekly departures to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland is by far one of the airport’s favourite UK destinations. This partnership with VisitBritain was designed to inspire passengers to explore further afield in the UK during their visit – or on future trips and we think it’s been a fantastic success.
“The variety of adverts that have appeared across the airport over the last nine months have been breath-taking and we know our passengers have found them stunning to look at. Scotland is a beautiful country and we want to play our part to educate and encourage our passengers of the breadth and beauty that the whole of the UK has to offer. We hope these ads will support Scotland to benefit from their direct link to the UK’s only hub airport.”
Denise Hill, Head of International Marketing at VisitScotland said: “Our Meet the Scots campaign has proved highly successful in reaching out to new visitors in markets right across the globe. The Scots lend a truly authentic human warmth to the campaign and we are delighted that they will now be taking their story to passengers at Heathrow Airport, inspiring them to find out more about out the beauty of Scotland during 2015, the Year of Food and Drink.
“Each one of our campaign ambassadors has been chosen as a real Scot, with their own authentic ‘insider’ tips to share- including where to hand dive for scallops, where to have the most amazing wildlife experiences, and where to find the best local events and festivals taking place across Scotland. Scotland is a haven for unique adventures where the Scots welcome you to their life.”
The Scotland Office Minister David Mundell added:“Heathrow is a gateway to the globe and a hub for businesses and tourists from across the world and this latest GREAT campaign will showcase the very best of Scotland, from our food and drink to our Heritage at the UK’s busiest airport. Through the UK’s extensive diplomatic, trade and consular network GREAT has been a tremendous success across the world and I have no doubt this latest campaign will enhance Scotland’s outstanding international profile even further.”
Minister for Tourism, Helen Grant, said: “GREAT celebrates the things that make Britain a fantastic place to visit and since it started we have welcomed record visitor numbers to our shores. Scotland has world-class culture, heritage and landscapes and this campaign at the UK’s busiest airport will entice many more tourists to go and explore the best of Scotland for themselves.”
The first six months of 2014 equated to the strongest first half of a year for inbound tourism to Scotland since 2008. From January to June 2014 Scotland welcomed 1,119,000 inbound international visits – an uplift of 16% on the same period in 2013 and the highest number of visits for six years. The amount spent during visits to Scotland in these first six months was £631 million – a new record for this period.
