ENGLISH Riviera Tourism Company (ERTC) has enjoyed overwhelming success with a new 2015 national, brand awareness campaign targeting new domestic visitors from across the UK.
From January to March this year the new ‘A Lifetime of Memories’ campaign has harnessed the power of Digital Destination Marketing and popular Social Media channels such as Facebook and YouTube to attract more visitors to the English Riviera for 2015.
CORE to the campaign is a 30-second and 60-second new video of lazy summer days shot on Goodrington Beach in the heat wave of July, 2014. The new video has now been viewed over 138,000 times and has the ability to show millions of potential holidaymakers online what a great holiday destination the English Riviera is.
The new film produced locally by De Facto was specifically developed to appeal to multi-generations.
The central campaign message is to come and relive childhood memories with your children and grandchildren and to create new memories that are passed on to the next generation, with the English Riviera having a very high repeat visitor rate. The promotion of the new Lifetime of Memories video is being managed in partnership with the ERTC and Devon based advertising agency RH Partners.
TO support the campaign, the ERTC invested in new photography working with local company MotionGrafix inviting local people with a real love of the Bay as models. The photography includes all ages representing the popularity of the English Riviera among extended family groups.
THE ‘call to action’ is to visit the official English Riviera web site which has seen a dramatic rise in numbers and a 18 per cent year on year increase in requests for the official 2015 English Riviera Destination Guide produced by
the ERTC.
Between January and March, visits to the English Riviera website increased by 61 per cent compared to the same period in 2014, totaling nearly 362,000 visits. Traffic to the official site remains very strong with over 1.4 million expected to visit by the end of the year and over 100,000 ‘sign ups’ to receive the official English Riviera Newsletter.
Sharing Memories on Facebook — The Power of Content Marketing
In addition to the new ‘A Lifetime of Memories’ video visitors to the English Riviera are being invited to share their own stories and memories via a dedicated new Facebook App designed by e-strategy a local Digital Marketing Agency, which was launched as part of the campaign.
Over 100 original stories have now been submitted and provide a unique archive of family holiday memories and content to help promote the resort both online and offline with powerful authentic copy being shared across all platforms.
FOR the first time the ERTC has also invested in Google Display Advertising to promote the English Riviera brand and a carefully chosen portfolio of target adverts appealing to all ages and including family groups, couples and single travelers have now been seen over seven million times since the new ‘A Lifetime of Memories’ campaign was launched January. ‘Cost Per response’ is as low as 10 pence per enquiry and as a result the ERTC are extending the campaign to take advantage of the increasingly late booking patterns.
Carolyn Custerson, chief executive officer of the English Riviera Tourism Company, explains: “Traditional media such as guides and leaflets still have an important role to play in the holiday market but holiday makers are increasingly mobile and digital savvy and want to proactively engage online and via their social media accounts.
“In the past 12 months the ERTC has seen a 360 per cent increase in the number of people accessing the official English Riviera website via their mobile devices which confirms how important providing fully integrated online information is.
“The new ‘A Lifetime of Memories’ digital brand awareness marketing campaign has been supported by local businesses as part of the Promotional Partners Programme and has given us the opportunity to try something new and to fully integrate all of the online platforms that we use to promote the English Riviera brand. We have been absolutely delighted with the results to date.”
