Marketing Update - June 2010

Marketing Activity Update - Summer 2010
June 2010 Update

This is an update on our marketing activity featuring information on our current high profile short breaks campaign, Eventful Escapes and our activity for Cheshire’s Garden’s of Distinction.

EVENTFUL ESCAPES CAMPAIGN 2010

Targets
- Total Reach (opportunities to see/hear the campaign) 6.4 million

Activity to-date

Online - Launched campaign website view here with over 45 different packaged ‘offers’ from accommodation providers

Radio - A brand building radio campaign prepared especially for Eventful Escapes was voiced by North West treasure, Liza Tarbuck. The ad was played out towards the start of the campaign in May on Classic FM (North & Midlands macros). The radio ad will reappear throughout the summer. Total radio reach 1,654,000

Print - 4page inserts featured in Daily Mail Weekend, Sunday Times Magazine, Saturday Times Magazine, Saturday Telegraph, Stella – Sunday Telegraph. These inserts provided us with a total reach of 1,158,000

Online & Digital – display advertising on Telegraph.co.uk. All placements performed within the industry average. See results below

We also bought advertising space on e-newsletters sent out to the databases of Telegraph.co.uk (Telegraph News and Telegraph Sport). Alongside this, we sent a solus email to 27,500 Daily Mail email subscribers

Our social media activity has been brought into the campaign and our Facebook, Twitter and Flickr communities are being interacted with, with Eventful Escapes in mind

The focus of this activity is to drive the audience to our campaign website

SEO & PPC campaign launched to compliment (not compete) with any activity being done by event organizers.

PR – Our consumer PR activity over the last 2 months has focused completely on Eventful Escapes. This included a high profile launch and publicity stunt in conjunction with Virgin Trains at London Euston on 27 May 2010

Outdoor (Events) – Banners showcasing the Eventful Escapes message to all face to face audiences – with banners placed at events where possible, including The Thundersprint (May 2010), Halfords Tour Series (June 2010), Cheshire County Show (June 2010)

Results to-date

Online and Digital Reach:
1. Telegraph Display activity – 3.4 Million
2. Telegraph Enewsletters – 183K (including one off promotions for The Thundersprint event)

Click through rates from our online display advertising and emailers are on target for the campaign forecasts.  Specifically, our advertising campaign with Telegraph.co.uk performed especially well.

Our results from Telegraph.co.uk show that all placements performed within the industry average, and the leaderboard in particular performed extremely well due to placement at the very top of the page.

Upcoming Activity:
• Eventful Escapes PR activity throughout the events season, including attempts to obtain broadcast coverage (ongoing)

• Eventful Escapes themed email broadcast to North West Development Agency database of circa 50K (June 2010)

• Outdoor (banner) promotion at each of the events where possible

For more information on the Eventful Escapes campaign contact:
Steve Adamson
Marketing Manager
T: 01244 405616
Email Steve here

OTHER MARKETING ACTIVITY

Chester Zoo Short Breaks campaign
We’re about to deliver a short break advertising campaign in conjunction with Chester Zoo.  We’ll deliver this pilot campaign which will see a combined Zoo-Destination message, to encourage overnight stays.  Using Chester Zoo’s existing ticket agent mechanism, we’ve already engaged with a number of accommodation providers who will see their packages listed on a dedicated iVistor Guide. 

The timing of this campaign will commence w/c 21 June 2010, and run through to August 2010 (summer holidays are the target time for visits).

The target market for this campaign is families and couples in Yorkshire region. West and North Yorkshire being mostly targeted.

For more information on the Chester Zoo campaign contact:
Steve Adamson
Marketing Manager
T: 01244 405616
Email Steve here


New website for visitchester.com
A new website for visitchester.com will launch later this summer.

The refreshed look and feel for Chester’s official visitor information website comes following significant investment in understanding the customer journey. On top of a complete content refresh built with the consumer in mind, new features will include independent reviews from Simonseeks, membership led listings - plus, your opportunity to advertise on the website via traditional banner style advertising, and our new Property of the Week feature.

For more information on the new website for visitchester.com contact:
Donna Lund
E-Media Manager
T: 01244 405627
Email Donna here


Digital Marketing
Our Facebook, Twitter and Flickr audiences continue to grow with double figure % increases reported this month. This is following our method of integrating these social media channels into our more traditional marketing. We appreciate the importance of being innovative in this area, and as such, we’re investing in developing our people so that more of us can embrace the many opportunities that digital marketing brings. For instance, we’ve recently invested in creative writing courses so that our colleagues can ‘blog’ about different experiences across the destination. And, in a trial move, we’ll soon test the concept of offering consumers the chance to download digital ‘moneysaving’ vouchers via a mobile phone application.

For more information on digital marketing contact
Jenny Bate
Digital Marketing Executive
T: 01244 405620
Email Jenny here