And Now For Something Completely Different: VisitBritain Launches New Tourism Campaign

Tired of the same old thing in the U.S. of A? If so, VisitBritain is hoping you’ll hop a plane and “be a Brit different.”

That’s the theme of a new three-year, $4 million consumer promotion designed to position England, Scotland and Wales as the place for tourists looking for something out of the ordinary.

“The new campaign will inspire first time and repeat visitors to discover Britain’s unexpected experiences, such as learning to surf in the Gower Peninsula in Wales or attending a concert at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire in England,” says Rupert Peters, executive vice president for VisitBritain in the Americas.

“Be a Brit different” will feature “unexpected” uses of the Union Jack image, and kicked off in February with print ads in magazines such as Architectural Digest, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, National Geographic Traveler and Travel + Leisure.

Online, ads appeared on sites such as AOL.com, LATimes.com and Concierge.com. An audio podcast linked to the effort will be available on the arts and culture section of NPR.com through the end of April.

VisitBritain will also sponsor a contest online where consumers can test their knowledge about Britain. Monthly prizes will include British products such as Johnston’s cashmere items and Royal Crown Derby China. At the end of the contest, consumers who answered questions correctly will be entered in a drawing for a trip for two to Britain.

The Web accounts for a substantial part of the tourism board’s U.S. marketing budget.

“All our research shows that the Web is the primary vehicle people are using today to research a destination,” says Peters. “We just don’t want to be a reactive agency. We want to be the trigger in the decision-making process.”

While the U.S. is still Britain’s most important tourist target market, he notes, French and German tourists are visiting the United Kingdom more than they once did, thanks to the surge in low-cost airlines.

VisitBritain’s best U.S. prospects are baby boomers, age 45 to 60 — among other things, they’re educated and affluent. But Generations X and Y are on the radar too. “We have a number of sub-segments in those groupings,” Peters adds. “For example, we run microcampaigns targeting the gay and lesbian market.”

However, the primary market segmentation is between consumers and businesses. “Consumers are probably the mainstay of our marketing efforts, but business travelers spend far more per day than leisure travelers,” he says.

In 2005, a record year, the United Kingdom hosted 30 million tourists. U.S. travelers contributed $4.7 billion of the $27.3 billion travelers spent overall. And while complete 2006 figures weren’t available at press time, Peters estimates that the number of visitors rose by 7% and the monetary total by 8%.

To reach U.S. travelers online, VisitBritain utilizes search, pay-per-click advertising and content-distribution deals with newspapers in key demographic areas — i.e., The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.

“One of the surprising things is that California is our biggest source state,” says Peters, noting New York is next. “I like to think you’ve got to travel a little bit to get a bit of quality.”

In addition, VisitBritain has a database of 2 million travelers, including roughly 550,000 who’ve opted in to receive e-mail communications. Visitors to the site are asked their age, where they live, their interests and other psychographic and demographic data that’s useful in targeting messages.

Tailored e-zines are sent every other month to tourists who want to read about family travel, gay and lesbian interests, music, history and heritage.

VisitBritain does not book travel directly — that’s done by third-party vendors. But it does offer value-added products like the Oyster Card, a transit pass providing the cheapest fare on the Tube subway system any day or time of the week.

“We think it’s a good thing for us to sell those cards, because one of our main challenges is obviously [providing] a good value equation because of the weakness of the dollar — or the strength of the sterling, depending on how you look at it,” says Peters. “Britain can be perceived as being an expensive destination, so we need to combat that.”

The card, which is sold outside the United Kingdom exclusively by VisitBritain, is being promoted in e-mail newsletters and can be purchased on the Web site. Who buys it? One group is people interested in cities.

“When we talk about London and the fact that all the museums and galleries in London are free, [we mention] that the best way of getting around London is on the Tube,” Peters says. “Get your Oyster Card and you can get the best rate.”

Peters acknowledges that this is easier to publicize if someone has an understanding of the English capital’s transportation system. So VisitBritain’s site includes a beginners’ guide to using the card and the Tube.

Direct mail is a small part of the marketing mix. Last year VisitBritain participated in Treasure Chest, a co-op mailing of vacation offers. It purchased about half a million addresses profiled to match various segments — like people with a high propensity to travel who’ve been to Europe in the last three to five years. The inserts advertised the country’s four “iconic destination brands under the umbrella of Britain, England, Scotland, Wales and London,” says Peters.