VisitBritain launches comedy campaign with BA and American Airlines
VisitBritain has launched a $3.7 million comedy campaign, in partnership with American Airlines and British Airways, to bring more US visitors to Britain.
Each of the three has contributed $1.25 million to the ‘British Famous’ campaign, which will run throughout the year.
The campaign involves the release of four videos featuring British comedian Diane Morgan as she attempts to ‘make it’ in America.
In the first two Morgan transforms herself into what she believes Americans love – a self-help guru in Wales and a rock star in Manchester.
In later videos she transforms herself into an action star and a hipster foodie, promoting different parts of Britain.
It is hoped the films will drive online traffic to a ‘BritishFamous.com’ hub featuring destination content from VisitBritain and tactical fares and offers from the airlines.
The campaign has been timed to take advantage of the weaker pound against the dollar.
At the end of February, Britain was 13% cheaper for visitors from the US than it was compared to the same month last year.
Rob McDonald, BA head of global marketing, said: "Britain enjoys exporting comedy over the pond, so it was a natural choice for us to bring a little humour to this tourism campaign."
The US is Britain’s most valuable visitor market, worth more than $3.7 billion annually to the UK economy.
The latest figures show there were 2.7 million visits from the US to Britain from January to September 2016, up 3% compared to the same period the year before.
Visitors from the US spent $3.1 billion from January to September last year across Britain, up 9% on 2015 figures.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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