Guest Blog: Selling Scotland, the Home of Golf

Across VisitScotland we now find ourselves in the heart of delivering our biggest ever consumer golf marketing campaign which is seeing activity being undertake across Scotland, the rest of the UK & Ireland, Europe and North America.  The campaign ‘hooks’ the promotion of golf across all of Scotland to the country’s hosting of The 2014 Ryder Cup to capitalise on the interest in this global event. A snapshot of activity is included below which is further supported through VisitScotland’s extensive events outreach programme and trade and industry engagement.

Global campaign activity

Scotland’s biggest ever golf campaign is currently ongoing and will run until August 2014. With a media spend in the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Germany and Sweden, the campaign utilises a mix of channels including print, online, eDM’s and sales promotion. To encourage engagement and for data capture purposes, the campaign is supported by a dedicated Ryder Cup competition with partners Golfbreaks.com and Premier Golf. Headline results to date are 75,000 visits to the campaign page(s) and 45,000+ competition entries. The Official Guide to Golf in Scotland is also currently being widely distributed.

Regional campaign activity

Underpinning the global golf campaign is VisitScotland’s Local Authority funded golf media spend in Scotland and the North of England to specifically promote 6 golfing regions. The campaign runs from February - October 2014 through complimentary channels to the global campaign. Data is being gathered through region specific stay and play (including Ryder Cup tickets) competitions. In addition, VisitScotland has delivered the production of 5 printed regional golf guides, 6 regional golf digi guides and continues to operate 3 regional golf passes. Support is also being given to regional golf development groups across Scotland to assist them in the promotion of golf in their region.

PR activity

VisitScotland and EventScotland have supported more than 40 press FAM trips in the last 12 months from a variety of markets including North America, Europe, UK & I and Long Haul. It is important to recognise that the benefits of these visits extend out with the Ryder Cup focus of Gleneagles & Perthshire and deliver Scotland-wide coverage. Ryder Cup ‘one year’ and ‘six months’ to go milestones were highlighted to over 300 priority pan market media and multiple national and local press releases have been issued to ensure that golf remains to the fore.

Online & Social activity

Regular golf related updates and original content creation has been and continues to be added to both www.visitscotland.com/golf and www.rydercup2014.com, this includes a number of video elements. These videos have been uploaded to Scotland the Home of Golf YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/scotlandhomeofgolf. In addition content is being posted on facebook.com/ScotlandHomeofGolf and twitter.com/RyderCup2014 on a frequent basis. VisitScotland now also holds a repository of 40 golf related articles for on demand third party use.

To find out more about VisitScotland activity and how to take advantage of a range of golf opportunities and ideas to benefit your business, download the VisitScotland AdviceLink golf guide at www.visitscotland.org/golf-tourism.aspx

Alan Grant

Golf Marketing Manager - The 2014 Ryder Cup