National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Co-Op Marketing

Visit California

Britifornians

About This Entry:

Visit California’s and British Airways expanded their partnership in FY16/17 to mark the 10th year of a strategic collaboration and to celebrate the addition of a fifth direct flight into a California gateway city.

The co-op marketing program targeted a core audience of young affluent travelers in the United Kingdom ages 18-34. The campaign objectives were to increase flight bookings to California destinations.

The strategy started with a co-branded 30-second TV spot aimed to inspired travelers, followed by three new promotional videos in a series called “Britifornians”, and concluded with a California industry-funded sales campaign with British Airways offering special fares to California destinations. The content series, heavily promoted online and through an innovative Facebook partnership, profiled four typical British personalities as they discovered what it meant to let loose and dream big in California.
 
The tactical sales layer was designed to promote both British Airways Holiday sales and participating gateways including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. The campaign included a digital out-of-home campaign and a British Airways produced content hub on SecretEscapes.com to promote fares to gateways during the peak January sales period.
 
Three California gateways, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, participated in this co-op program for a collective investment with Visit California of $200,000.

Campaign Strategy:

Designed to inspire, Visit California and British Airways created a special version of the “Living the Dream” TV spot with a unique call to action for purchasing flights that ran for two weeks in January.

To further engage the target audience, the three “Britifornian” videos profile real British travelers, while simultaneously highlighting the stunning scenery of the United State’s most beautiful and diverse state, California. The three videos highlighted the key gateway cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. The content series was rooted in British Airways and Visit California’s respective brand promises to show the United Kingdom audience why a trip to California was so essential.

And ultimately, the sales campaign converted viewers’ inspiration into a transactional trip with British Airways. To further promote the British Airways Sale, Visit California partnered with highly-populated gateway cities to invest in the tactical sales layer and drive sales during peak time in January.

The campaign included destination-specific creative strategies across digital and prominent out-of-home advertising, as well as a partnership with luxury product wholesaler, Secret Escapes.

British Airways produced a California-centered hub on SecretEscapes.com promoting fares to gateways during the peak sales period. This activity was supported through internal channels of British Airways and Visit California, including an inflight screening of the Britifornians custom-content series over a three-month period. The content auto played before each film on long haul flights.

Results:

The campaign successfully broadened California’s reach to inspire people to want to travel to California, and especially appealed to a younger audience age 18-34.

The co-branded TV spot delivered more than 57 million impressions during its two-week airing.

The promotional “Britifornian” videos were distributed through Visit California and British Airways channels, including in-flight entertainment, and supported by media distribution through  Google, TruView, Facebook,  LoopMe, Teads.TV,   ClearStream,  BrightRoll (Yahoo),  Runway+ and BAIn-Flight Entertainment. Cumulatively, the videos received more than 3.1 million views.

The sales activity drove 18 percent incremental passenger journeys to California. This drove sales of 4,800 incremental British Airways Holiday products, representing a 215 percent uplift on the previous period.
 
The California-centered hub on SecretEscapes.com had more than 55,000 unique views and a significant click-through rate of 0.33 percent. Social posts amplifying the campaign reached nearly 2 million and generated more than 10,000 engagements. Additionally, email promotions amplified the campaign to more than 1 million readers with a 32.19 percent open rate.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

Visit California’s strategy started with a co-branded 30-second TV spot aimed at inspired travelers, followed by three new promotional videos in a series called “Britifornians.” California concluded with an industry-funded sales campaign in partnership with British Airways, offering special fares to California destinations. The content series, heavily promoted online and through an innovative Facebook partnership, profiled four typical British personalities as they discovered what it meant to let loose and dream big in California. They took a traditional approach to creating a video series, and executed the series well across various media platforms.