US Connections – Discover England Fund Project

Visit Bath and Visit Bristol have joined the established US Connections – Discover England Fund project for its final year. As part of the last year of this project, a focus on domestic marketing has taken place whilst international travel is not possible due to the pandemic. The project involves 13 destinations from the south-west, south-east and eastern England.

Over the last few years, a great deal of activity has taken place with the travel trade, by way of developing itineraries around key themes. More information on the travel trade element of this project in the last year can be found here. 

Bath and Bristol will benefit from a campaign of activity pushing traffic to a specific project micro-site, and then in turn to the Visit Bath and key product websites. A selection of bookable tours will be able to be purchased directly via the project site too.

Campaign and Dates for Bath and Bristol

The campaign, which goes live on Monday 15th March, is focused on a domestic audience to plan ahead and book visits for late summer/early autumn 2021. The campaign will feature key product within the project theme of ancestry.

Target audience markets will be ‘Family-Friendly’ and ‘Mini-Breaker (couples with no kids)’, targeting users with matching interests and affinities, including history, ancestry, staycations, the outdoors, and adventure.

Project Activity

High-profile activity from the project will include...

• Targeted social media content with south-west carousels and video featuring Bath and Bristol across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
• Google-responsive display advertising
• YouTube pre-roll advertising
• Regional radio advertising for two weeks from 29th March, with the Bath and Bristol advert aired on Heart Devon and Smooth Devon to target a two-hour drive-time radius
• Print advertising in regional newspapers with Bath and Bristol adverts in the Exeter Express and Echo, mid-Devon Gazette, North Devon Journal, The Cornishman, Plymouth Herald, Western Morning News and Mid-Somerset Series on from the week-commencing 15th March and week-commencing 29th March.

Reach Figures

Reach figures for the whole campaign is expected as follows...

• Digital reach of over 8 million
• Radio reach of 1.06 million
• Press readership of over 650,000

The URL for the campaign call-to-action is Reconnect England, and it officially goes live on Monday 15th March 2021.

Members wishing to extend the reach of the campaign and get involved are encouraged to follow the social media accounts below and share content using #Reconnect.

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube

For more information about Visit Bath's involvement in this project, please contact our Membership Manager, Nas Alvi. 

For more information about Visit Bristol's involvement in this project, please contact our Membership Manager, Faye.