Ogilvy & Mather & VisitBritain’s China Naming Campaign Wins Gold at Cannes

VisitBritain's GREAT China Naming campaign, developed by Ogilvy & Mather, swept the board at the 2015 Cannes Lions, winning two PR golds and one silver at the awards affectionately known as ‘the Oscars of the marketing industry’. 

The £1.6 million "Great Names for Great Britain" campaign channeled China's love for clever nicknames, asking the people of China to give Chinese names to 101 tourist attractions, landmarks and places of interest scattered across Britain. Developed by advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing, it is the largest ever campaign launched in China by a national tourist board and as part of the wider GREAT campaign.

The campaign’s scope included a dedicated microsite produced by digital agency Brand42, social media activity, and a combination of print and OOH (out-of-home) advertising. It reached nearly 300 million potential Chinese tourists via the national tourism agency’s Weibo and WeChat platforms. Over two million people visited the campaign pages and nearly 30 million Chinese watched the launch video, with 13,000 new names suggested throughout the ten weeks.

The Government’s GREAT campaign is clearly working for tourism. Last year 18% more Chinese holiday tourists came to Britain on holiday, reaching a new record, and they spent £138 million (up 7%) during their trips. The number of nights they stayed shot up by 26% to 885,000 - again, a new record. VisitBritain forecasts that, with the right investment and promotion, Chinese visitors could be spending over £1 billion a year in Britain by 2020 – over double the £497 million they spent in Britain last year across all visit types.

Joss Croft, Marketing Director at VisitBritain said: “It's now official that this is the best and most original marketing campaign a tourist board has ever launched in China. We wanted to reach out directly to Chinese consumers with something that appealed to their fascination with nicknames, and the response was, quite frankly, remarkable. Ogilvy & Mather’s incredible creativity made them the perfect partner to help us achieve this goal."

“This campaign has introduced the next generation of Chinese travellers to previously unknown places and opened up the whole of Britain to the world’s most valuable tourism market.”

Conrad Bird, GREAT Campaign Director added: "I am delighted that the skills and creativity Visit Britain has used to engage Chinese audiences has been recognised at such a prestigious event. Our aim with the GREAT Britain campaign is to inspire businesses, tourists and students around the world to come to Britain to visit, study, invest and trade with us in order to create jobs and growth. This is another outstanding example of great work that has enabled the campaign to generate over £1.2bn for Britain to date."

Graham Fink, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather China said: “To win two Gold Lions at the Cannes Festival of Creativity is not only recognition of world-class creative work, but clearly demonstrates that collaborating with a client as a business partner rather than a supplier, brings about the most effective ideas.”

Only last month, an independent study from the National Audit Office commended the GREAT campaign as global marketing activity of the highest quality. As a founding member of the GREAT campaign, much of VisitBritain’s attention and efforts have been in the successful locking-in of private sector funding.

In the last three years VisitBritain raised £43 million from private companies to match-fund international tourism marketing effectively, creating an even more compelling return on investment. Another priority of activity has been to deliver economic growth across the nations and regions of Britain. Latest analysis of VisitBritain’s GREAT work overseas suggests that exposure to the GREAT tactical campaign actually doubles the likelihood of a visit to both Scotland and Wales.