The West Midlands in the Heart of England are a relatively unknown travel destination on the German market. The tourism project “England’s Waterways” aims to put the region as a whole on the tourism map and to boost and expand tourism to Central England from Germany.
The Challenge
Marketing a region in England as an attractive holiday destination that has always been shaped more by industry than by tourism. The main focus of the campaign, which had been scheduled to run for nine months, is on the more than 700 km long network of canals and waterways, some of which cross the region in rings, with the city of Birmingham in the centre. In addition to holidays on the colorful canal boats, hiking and cycling tourism along canals and rivers as well as city and cultural trips are to be advertised.
Our Approach
Development and implementation of a wide-ranging and attention-grabbing PR and marketing campaign with a focus on B2C as well as individual B2B elements targeting the travel trade in Germany. In addition to the realisation of a digital media campaign in cooperation with Gruner + Jahr, various advertorials were published, industry newsletters were created and sent to the travel trade, various press releases were distributed and press trips for print media, bloggers and for television were organised and carried out.
Success & Numbers
Despite the short project duration, the measures generated a reach of over 14 million readers through PR publications alone, including articles in the supplement ZEIT Wohin, in the magazine ADFC Radwelt, a multi-page report in the magazine Country Homes as well as a TV report in the SAT. 1 morning show. The “Video Ad Campaign” was successfully played in various channels by G + J and achieved a total of 4.4 million impressions and various Instagram posts and stories were displayed to over 70,000 users.
You have done a superb job. We are very pleased with all of the waterways activity you have delivered for us – it has been great and you have been so easy to work with.