to highlight “world class

holiday” destinations

• Devon wants to boost tourism at a time of national economic hardship
• It uses TV for the first time to show locals and consumers in the Midlands that Devon offers “world class holidays”
• Those who saw the ad were 20% more likely to agree the county is a “great destination”

The challenge

Devon’s tourist industry is vital to the county’s GDP and in Spring 2009 the economic climate presented it with both a threat and an opportunity.
The fear was that as consumer finances tightened, the move towards late bookings would become no bookings. However, the poor exchange rate also presented an opportunity to get Devon residents to stay at home during the Summer and Autumn.

The challenge was to convey Devon’s positioning as “England’s Greenest County” to residents and potential visitors and make them appreciate the beautiful and diverse natural environment that was on their doorsteps.

The TV solution

Conveying the natural beauty of Devon and the plethora of tourist options required a highly visual medium and one that could turn around the campaign in short order.

While the brief had only arrived in April, the activity had to go live very quickly in order to influence behaviour over the summer. The Westcountry TV region would enable Visit Devon to reach all residents and also offered the lowest cost per thousand of any media.

A 40-second TV ad showing destinations such as Dartmoor, beaches and villages was aired in June and for a cost of just £36,000, with airtime spread across the day and 60% of spots appearing in peak.

The ad also ran on ITV’s Central region in July at a cost of a further £40,000.

The activity was backed up by a significant PR activity.

Results

The activity reached 73% of all adults in the county, who saw it an average of 6.3 times.

The effectiveness of the ad was measured by TNS Sofres, with prompted awareness reaching 44% among all adults rising to 53% among those 55-years-old and greater and 48% among C2DEs, significantly higher than the norm for this weight of activity.

The power of the commercial to change attitudes was also clear with 64% of those questioned strongly agreeing that Devon is a great holiday destination if they had not seen the advert. The score was 20% higher at 77% among consumers who had seen the creative.

Anecdotal research indicates that the campaign has helped local tourism business weather the economic storm and some have performed even better in 2009 than they did in 2008.