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Marketing Update 29 September 2015
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2016 Publications: Deadline for appearing in 2016 publications has now passed
Advertising: Buy into our 2016 City Campaign
PR: Online coverage for Stonehenge and Longleat
Website and Digital: Unique visits for 2015 up +32% at the end of August
Travel Trade: Made of England campaign features in Travel GBI
Calling All Attractions: Find out about our new Visitor Attractions group
Photography: Photo competition closes Wednesday 30 September
2016 Publications
Inclusion in 2016 Time for Wiltshire Visitor Guide and Visitor Map
The deadline for advertising in VisitWiltshire’s 2016 publications has now passed. As explained in our newsletters and renewal information, an entry in VisitWiltshire's 2016 printed guides is not included within the cost of your annual partnership fee, so please be aware that if you have not booked your space your business will not feature in our print for 2016.
However, if booking a space has inadvertently slipped your mind and you would like to be included, it is still worthwhile dropping Jenny an email or giving her a ring as there are just a few spaces left to fill. The Time for Wiltshire Visitor Guide replaces the Stay Discover Explore Guide for 2016; the Time for Wiltshire Visitor Map replaces the Great Days Out Guide.
2016 Group Visits & Travel Trade Guide
Work is well underway on production of the 2016 Group Visits & Travel Trade guide, which will go to print in November.
Proofs of the various sections are currently being sent out for approval - so that the production process runs smoothly we would ask all partners to respond to these as quickly as possible please.
Advertising
2015 Campaigns
Made of England: Autumn 2015
Our autumn campaign celebrates all of the timeless pleasures associated with England and available in Wiltshire. Highlighting Wiltshire as the perfect short break destination, ideal for romantic getaways, and showcasing our quality food and drink offerings. Also emphasising the range of independent accommodation, shops, history and heritage, events, arts, culture and festivals, activities, days out and evening entertainment.
The campaign, which launched at the end of September, includes 85,000 copies of an inspirational fold-out mailer distributed across greater London via Time Out and the Sunday Telegraph, as well as regionally in range of Lifestyle magazines; an e-newsletter to over 56,000 consumers; train panels on South West Trains; PR and social media campaigns; digital display and pre-roll advertising; the launch of a new Made of England video; channels via VisitEngland and VisitBritain; a themed blog; an integrated Facebook video and an Instagram competition.
City Campaign: January 2016
Our new year campaign will position Salisbury as a perfect short break destination, highlighting heritage, emphasising the range of independent accommodation, shops and food and drink, history and heritage, events, arts, culture and festivals, activities, days out and evening entertainment.
Details of the campaign can be found here. To reserve your space or for further information please email Fiona.
Core Marketing
YouTube Video
Pre-roll video advertising provides contextually targeted exposure across Google's YouTube video network. The nature of video advertising allows the campaign to communicate an extended message to potential visitors and highlight the experiences that can be enjoyed on a visit to Wiltshire. Results for August were: 46,490 impressions and 9,941 views, generating an extremely high view rate of 21.38%.
Facebook Video
Facebook Video utilises the social networks detailed audience targeting opportunities to reach out and display the Press Pause/Time for Wiltshire video to parents and family groups with interests relevant to a short break in Wiltshire, including history and heritage, countryside pursuits, and art and culture. Facebook video continued to perform very strongly during August, providing 47,879 video views. In addition the campaign generated 627 clicks from 114,133 impressions, a click through rate of 0.55%.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Paid search is used to capture quality leads and deliver traffic to the VisitWiltshire website. Activity is divided into two campaigns: Accommodation and Things to Do. Results for August were:
Accommodation: 59,935 impressions, 3,236 clicks, a click through rate of 5.4%. New targeting and bid strategies provided access to quality mobile visitors and resulted in the highest click through rate to date.
Things to Do: 29,200 impressions, 688 clicks, a click through rate of 2.36%. Visitor performance saw a positive increas in time on site.
App Extensions
Paid search ads within the Accommodation and Things to Do campaigns that are served to individuals on Apple or Android devices have the opportunity to direct traffic to the appropriate version of the VisitWiltshire mobile app. Results for August were:
526 impressions, 36 clicks, a click through rate of 6.8%.
Personalised Partner Marketing
If you are interested in working with us on a bespoke marketing campaign, please contact Fiona.
PR
Press Releases
The following press releases have been sent out this month:
Corsham: Poldark, Peacocks and So Much More
VisitWiltshire Launches New 'Made of England' Campaign
A number of press visits are currently being worked upon, including one for Ramblers Walk Magazine who will be visiting Wiltshire in October.
VisitWiltshire is partnering with Wiltshire & Gloucester Standard to run a half term media competition 'Great Days Out in Wiltshire'. This should be published on 8 October. Thank you to all partners who offered prizes.
Online Coverage
Zoe Dawes who came to Wiltshire as part of the Social Travel Britain conference earlier this year has just published a video about her visit.
The Guardian published an article on Taking the Kids to Longleat as a result of a press trip organised by VisitWiltshire in May.
Website and Digital
www.visitwiltshire.co.uk
Unique visits to our website during August 2015 were 104,305, up 6% on the same month last year. Cumulatively for 2015 so far unique visits are up 32% on the same time last year.
Top referrers for August included: Twitter.com, VisitSouthWest.co.uk, Facebook.com
Top content pages for August (excluding the main Home page) included: What's On, Salisbury Home and Things to Do
Top product pages for August included: Devizes International Street Festival, Longleat and Avebury
Work on developing visitsalisbury.co.uk as a channel site using the VisitWiltshire domain is progressing well and the channel site is expected to go live later this autumn. The model is being developed in conjunction with Salisbury BID - if any other towns would be interested in developing a similar channel site, thereby improving quality and reducing duplication, please email Fiona.
Blogs
Blogs added to our website in the last month include:
Quintessentially English Things to Do in Wiltshire
A Walk Around Calne's Heritage Quarter
An Early Morning Visit to Stonehenge
Saintly Delights in Wiltshire
In addition, National Express recently published a blog we worked on with them that highlighted our Swindon partners.
Apps
Our apps continue to perform well. All our partners have an entry on the Wiltshire App, giving visitors and potential visitors an additional platform to find your business. The apps can be downloaded for FREE as follows:
Wiltshire: Apple and Google play
Salisbury: Apple and Google play
As at the end of August the two Apps had received 12,976 downloads between them (including downloads via tablets).
Both Apps have been refreshed, featuring a slightly different look, and both now offer geo-fencing notifications - if you would like more information on this, please email Emma.
Videos
Our latest Timeless-themed video has now been launched to tie in with our Made of England campaign.
Along with VisitWiltshire's other two Timeless videos - Time for Wiltshire and Press Pause - the Made of England video is available across three channels: YouTube, Facebook and Pre-roll.
Do take a look at all our videos here and please feel free to add a link to them into any communications with your guests.
One of the benefits of being a Gold Partner is the opportunity to include a video on your own entry on the VisitWiltshire website. If you haven't already done so and you have a video you would like to add, please email Emma with the YouTube URL.
E-Newsletters
The following e-newsletters have been sent out to consumers in the last month:
Wiltshire - the England You Love in One County
Make a Foodie Break to Wiltshire this September
Bank Holiday Ideas in Wiltshire
The VisitWiltshire database now stands at over 56,000 names... and everyone who has signed up is interested in Wiltshire! If you would like your business to feature in one of our regular e-newsletters we can include you for just £105. Contact Fiona for more information
Social Media
Social media is a great way of optimising and driving traffic to your website, as well as engaging with visitors. VisitWiltshire uses Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, You Tube and LinkedIn.
Now that the refresh of our website has been completed, Gold partners are able to feature their social media feeds on their own entries - please contact Emma for more details.
Twitter
• We now have 15,600 followers
• The top tweet was an image of sunrise at Stonehenge taken from the Instameet which had over 2k impressions
• Other activity has included retweets from VisitBritain and VisitEngland
• We received several celebrity tweets from Timmy Mallett on his visits to Great Bedwyn and Crofton Beam Engines, plus a retweet from Olympian Shelly Rudman
• National Express did a one-day VisitWiltshire takeover which was beneficial for our awareness. They also mentioned us in a tweet about our joint competition
Facebook
• We now have 8,049 likes
• Top posts include the new Made of England video which reached over 7k people and had 2.4k views on its first day; a post of the Stonehenge news seen by just under 4k people; and a post of some of the photos taken on our Stonehenge Instameet seen by around 1.7k people
• To tie in with the Made of England campaign our cover header was changed to the Castle Combe shot with Vintage Classics. This has also been well received with 281 likes and 35 shares
Instagram
• We now have 1,511 followers
• Our latest Instagram competition, which ties in with the Made of England campaign, is now live using #visitwiltshireautumn. Igerswiltshire will be sharing it with their followers, and National Express mentioned the competition on Instagram too
• Top posts have included Magna Flora with 95 likes; Stourhead with 112 likes and the heel stone at Stonehenge with 94 likes
• Our Stonehenge Instameet generated a busy week on Instagram, with lots of positive comments as well as amazing photos of the sunrise
Keep us in the Loop
To help with optimisation we are always looking for fresh, new, inspiring content, so please keep us up to date with all your news. Also, if you have any offers or promotional ideas that you would like promoted we can add them onto our Offers section. Please email Emma with the details.
Travel Trade
Online Coverage
Coverage of the Made of England campaign featured in Travel GBI
Our joint competition with National Express is featured on their website
Print Coverage
Editorial has been supplied for Coach Monthly's October edition. Additional editorial has been issued to Group Leisure, and again to Coach Monthly for a future 'British Destination' feature. The Pass featured a joint competition with VisitWiltshire, TSE and Excursions in their August edition.
Travel Trade Package
Earlier this year VisitWiltshire launched a new Travel Trade Package for those interested in the groups/travel trade market. Three levels of participation are available - for further details please contact Florence.
Calling All Attractions
We have a new Wiltshire Association of Visitor Attractions (WAVA) group to enable partners to discuss business activity, best practice, benchmarking and joint marketing initiatives. Our first meeting is likely to be on the afternoon of Tuesday 20 October (date and venue to be confirmed). If you would like to register your interest to attend please contact Jenny.
Photography
2015 Photo Competition
Our joint photo competition with the Salisbury Journal comes to a close on 30 September. Watch this space for details of the winners which will be announced shortly...
Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
If you have any lovely autumnal images that you would be happy for us to use on our website or in our publications, please send them over to Jenny.
to add an item to your Itinerary basket.