Christmas 2013 Campaign

Objectives

• Drive visitors to visitmanchester.com/christmas to plan a visit – target 300,000 visits

• Highlight the Christmas offering and events in Manchester

• Motivate planning and booking of overnight stays/ short breaks

• Increase visitor numbers by attracting new visitors to the city, driving repeat visitors and increase the frequency of repeat visits

• Extend the length of stay of visitors by converting day trips to overnight stays

• Increase contact database by 5000• Increase hotel occupancy by 1% through the promotion

of Manchester as a short breaks destination.

Target Audiences

• ABC1 families and couples interested in short breaks and day visits

• LGBT couples and individuals interested in short breaks and day visits

• Same sex friend groups interested in short breaks and day visits

• International couples and families interested in short breaks in Europe.

Geographical split

• Regionally – wealthy areas including Lancashire, Cheshire and Chester and towards Liverpool

• Nationally – London & South East, Birmingham, Yorkshire & Humberside and North East

• Internationally – Germany, Spain, Ireland and Russia.

Timings

• Mid October – End December• Majority of activity will happen in November• The media plan will be weighted 20%

October, 60% November and 20% December.

Creative & Key Messages

• Building on the success of the Christmas characters used in 2012

• Creative developed to feature more Manchester content (for a less aware audience outside the region)

• Strong messaging, positioning Manchester as an exciting place, with a unique Christmas offering, on a scale that cannot be seen anywhere else in the UK

• Focussing on the events, shopping, culture and nightlife – a vibrant city to visit for a short break

• Call to action - visitmanchester.com/christmas

Media Channels

• TV– Focussed on Granada and Central

West regions – 30 second ads (extended from 2012)– 2 weeks in each region, starting 18th

November

• Radio– Yorkshire and across the North West – Promotional activity also being

considered

• OOH– Transport hubs incl. rail stations and

regional airports – Shopping malls – Local 48 sheets, 6 sheets and digital

Media Channels

• Press Advertising– Local, regional and national

(incl. Weekend supplements, lifestyle & travel magazines)

• Print distribution– 500,000 leaflets – Different format to previous

years – Distributed via press inserts

in key publications, solus door drops (affluent post codes), leaflet racks across the North West.

Digital Marketing

• Visitmanchester.com/christmas• Paid search advertising on Google and

Facebook• E-newsletters to our database of

80,000 national contacts and 90,000 international

• E-mail marketing to rented external list of 200,000 new contacts

• Tweets (40,500 followers) Facebook posts (12,200 likes), blog mentions (4,000 readers)

• Facebook app to get people to submit images of Manchester at Christmas.

International Activity

• Working in partnership with Manchester Airport, airlines and originating destination airports

• Marketing campaigns will include digital, outdoor, PR and travel trade activity

• Priority countries: Spain, Germany, Irelandand Russia

• E-mail marketing to 4,350 international Travel Trade contacts.

PR

• Targeting couples, LGBT and family sector with the media

• Travel and feature editors from our target regions will be invited to the city on press trips

• Scheduled 15 press trip itineraries for campaign partners, 1st week of Christmas Markets

• Partner inclusions in monthly ‘What’s On’ e-newsletter to 500 contacts across the UK.

Questions?