Campaigns
We run a programme of highly-successful marketing campaigns and regularly bid for external funding to support large-scale campaigns and projects. In this section you will find some of our recent campaign highlights, as well as future campaigns you can get involved in.
Dog Friendly Cotswolds
We're a nation of pet lovers and dog ownership in the UK jumped to an estimated 12.5 milllion in 2021. The Cotswolds are a perfect dog-friendly destination and our campaign highlighted all the wonderful places to stay, eat and things to do in our area with a four-legged friend.
We were bowled over by the amazing content sent to us for our hugely successful #dogfriendlycotswolds digital campaign. We featured it across our social channels throughout March '22, netting a reach of 355k across Facebook and Instagram alone, and it allowed us to create a brand new dog-friendly web section. To help spread the message even further, we worked with three content creators and their gorgeous canine companions to create media trips that highlighted some of our most dog-friendly businesses in the Cotswolds.
The Real Cotswolds
Away from the better-known and certainly more visited Cotswold towns and villages are a whole host of equally beautiful but often completely undiscovered gems, rich in history and heritage and surrounded by stunning countryside.
My Cotswold Smile
#MyCotswoldSmile was a mini campaign to boost good feeling about the reopening of the Cotswolds. The campaign kicked off with a feel good video created specific for this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAuHpvql4s
#MyCotswoldSmile posts on Instagram alone garnered a reach of 157,380 with total likes across the campaign of 8,322. We saw good usage of the campaign hashtag which allowed us to share and highlight user generated content on our stories.
Posukuma the Bear
Japan Post’s mascot, a bear called Posukuma, came to the Cotswolds to enjoy a great British summer holiday
Cotswolds Tourism were delighted to be a key destination involved in a social media campaign with VisitBritain across Japan to highlight experiences that visitors can enjoy and to drive future bookings from this key market.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Japan Post Office, it released a series of stamps in September '21 featuring its Posukuma mascot visiting iconic landmarks and destinations, and experiencing British culture to mark the anniversary.
On the back of the stamps release VisitBritain is promoting the UK as a visitor destination in Japan, highlighting our cultural connections and messages of welcome and reassurance to provide travel inspiration, and ultimately drive future bookings.
Posukuma arrived in the UK in style via British Airways from Tokyo to London Heathrow, was welcomed by the tourism minister & headed off on his travels. Each day of the two-week stay, saw the Bear visiting key Cotswold attractions - he explored hidden gems such as Rousham gardens, Cotswold towns like Cirencester, took a ride on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway and even had an afternoon tea at the Lygon Arms in Broadway. Posukuma’s adventures were highlighted across our social media channels, as well as those of VisitBritain & VisitBritain Japan using #POSUKUMAinUK.
Overall the campaign generated many stories, posts and fantastic images, and gave VisitBritain Japan a reach of more than 7 million impressions over 3 weeks on Twitter alone. The campaign achieved a significant boost of perception, showcasing Britain and the welcome and friendliness of British people, and reminded Japanese travellers of the strong bonds between Japan, the UK, and especially the Cotswolds. Many thanks to all the businesses that hosted the bear and also got involved on social media sharing fantastic images of Posukuma's travels.
Marketing Recovery Fund
The Escape the Everyday Destination Management Organisations’ Recovery Marketing Fund allowed Cotswolds Tourism to deliver local marketing activities aligned to the national campaign. Our highly-successful campaign piggy-backed the national campaign but centred around our own hashtag Escape to the Cotswolds, for which we designed our own logo and photographic filters.
We worked closely with local tourism businesses to create Escape the Everyday guides and content that included bookable product experiences available for the consumer to purchase on our website.
This campaign saw the Cotswolds working with both national and local media to create a suite of digital advertising which promoted bookable product in the Cotswolds, including The Times Travel and SoGlos. We also created a series of media trips that highlighted the incredible breadth of bookable experiences this project helped to generate.
Uncover the Cotswolds
The ‘Uncover the Cotswolds' project was one of a number of projects to benefit from year 3 funding in 2018 via the Government’s £40 million Discover England Fund.
It was a travel trade focussed approach encompassing the wider region of the Cotswolds, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Forest of Dean and Wye Valley. The aim was to respond to feedback from tour operators to bring together authentic local experiences and get businesses working with the trade operators.
Why is this good for the Cotswolds & wider region?
From 2018 onwards Uncover the Cotswolds has focussed on showcasing incredible experiences, especially ones available throughout the year and in less visited areas, to help disperse tourists more evenly across the wider region and to encourage them to extend their stay.
We were aware that many businesses did not have any experience of dealing with the travel trade and international market, so a large part of the project was to educate, support and guide businesses to produce bookable trade experiences allowing them to access the international and group market.
The region now has a trade website www.cotswolds.com/trade highlighting many trade experiences, collateral including itineraries, accommodation directory, digital town guides, and overall digital browser to help businesses promote and encourage visitors to book things to do in the area when bookings are made, as well as a range of training modules for businesses.
We were able to promote the region at key in-person and virtual trade events including ETOA Best of Britain and Ireland, Visit Britain's Explore GB, Nordic Marketplace & ITB Berlin. Virtual training sessions have been held with Finnish operators, Tour Partner group and a virtual FAM visit to the area with UK Inbound.
What is happening now?
While the funding has now ended, it is vital to build back from the pandemic focussing on traditional international markets by working together as neighbouring destinations.
See our travel trade pages & TXGB to see how you can get involved and reach new audiences.