Post on 25-Sep-2020
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
1
The Great PR Debate:
Taking on Travel
Communication
Current Measurement
Shortcomings Measurement Type Problem
Ad Equivalency Values Almost all advertising buys are
negotiated with different rates and
discounts based on frequency
Number of Articles/Placements Fewer stories in more targeted places
can be more effective in generating
business results than more stories in
less targeted places
Circulation/Impressions Circulation “reach” doesn’t fully reflect
the outlet’s influence over your target
audience
The Barcelona Principles
1. Importance of goal setting first
2. Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to
measuring outputs
3. The effect on business results can and should be
measured where possible
4. Media measurement requires quantity and quality
5. AVEs are not the value of public relations
6. Social media can and should be measured
7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound
measurement
The Point System
Is this good coverage?
• System for evaluating the quality of media, blogger coverage
• Different criteria for each media category/sector
Points 0 1 2 3 4
Story ------------ Mention Brief/Roundu
p
Featured
Roundup
Oregon
Feature Story
Media ------------ Tier 3 ------------ Tier 2 Tier 1
Visuals No Yes ------------ ------------ ------------
Contact Info
No Yes ------------ ------------ ------------
TOTAL LOW = 2 ------------ ------------ ------------ HIGH = 10
Half Annual Insight Report VisitBritain
April – September 2013
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
6 Executive scorecard
6,763 articles of coverage were generated for VisitBritain
recording a total AVE of £447 million.
Over half of coverage (56%) appeared within print titles,
which accounted for 46% of the total opportunities to see.
Broadcast items accounted for 6% of coverage and
contributed 60% of the total AVE.
April 2013 – September 2013
Key campaign
Tone
Destinations
Commercial partner
Appearing in 47% of coverage,
the GREAT campaign
accounted for close to half
(49%) of the overall AVE. This
was most prominent in North
America and China, appearing
in 56% and 55% of coverage
respectively.
78% of global coverage
communicated a key
message.
‘Heritage is Great’ was the
most prolific, appearing in
42% of all coverage.
11% of all coverage (745 articles)
featured a VisitBritain
spokesperson. Joss Croft was the
most prominent (5%), featuring in
pieces discussing VisitBritain’s
partnership with Bloomingdales.
Total articles: 6,763
AVE: £447 million
OTS: : 3.1 billion
Regional breakdown
5% of global coverage featured a commercial partner, British
Airways being the most successful (2%).
89% of coverage featured at least one
impact measure. Images, the most
prolific, appeared in 60% of pieces,
enhancing the quality of coverage and
the impact on the reader.
42% of articles featured a call to
action (URL or phone number).
Travel magazines (print) and online
regional newspapers were the most
successful in delivering this metric, at
51% at 50% respectively.
Impact measures
North America
38%
Brazil3%
APMEA11%
Europe36%
China and Hong
Kong12%
<1%
<1%22%
77%
Strongly UnfavourableSlightly UnfavourableSlightly FavourableStrongly Favourable
3,2
68
2,0
95
2,0
31
1,3
33
1,2
78
163
55
England Scotland London London Plus Wales Northern Ireland Channel Islands
Vo
lum
e o
f co
ver
age
88%
China and Hong Kong and APMEA were the
most prominent regions to feature a partner,
at 14% and 13% respectively.
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
Key figures
ROI using AVE indicates the return
in ad value achieved for every £1 of
budget spent. For example, in
APMEA £634 in AVE was achieved
for every £1 in PR spend.
Cost per thousand is an efficiency
measure, which shows how much
PR spend was required to reach a
potential audience of 1,000 people
with VisitBritain coverage. For
example, in APMEA 1,000
opportunities to see were created
for every 33 pence worth of PR
spend.
* The AVE and OTS for New
Zealand and Saudi Arabia were
included in calculating the ROI and
CPT figures for Australia and Saudi
Arabia respectively. No separate
budget was supplied for these two
markets.
Please note: online coverage
generated by the USA for the
months of April, May and June is
not included in these results.
Updated results for the three
months will be available in the
annual report and on the myMetrica
portal.
Country Volume AVE OTS ROI CPT
APMEA 774 £92,755,810 438,240,552 £634 £0.33
Australia 314 £34,306,950 157,653,344 £639 £0.34
India 224 £22,624,575 142,156,130 £789 £0.20
Japan 105 £34,701,235 124,638,516 £683 £0.41
New Zealand 20 £141,738 4,650,613 * *
Saudi Arabia 9 £29,530 1,153,741 * *
United Arab Emirates 102 £951,782 7,988,208 £76 £1.61
Brazil 222 £8,757,865 142,501,187 £211 £0.29
China and Hong Kong 822 £13,020,140 486,499,558 £247 £0.11
China 617 £9,088,262 386,369,134 £327 £0.07
Hong Kong 205 £3,931,878 100,130,424 £526 £0.05
Europe 2,412 £129,009,629 1,086,821,482 £336 £0.35
Austria 59 £927,365 8,915,151 £155 £0.67
Belgium 164 £8,729,965 59,054,117 £527 £0.28
Denmark 117 £955,609 21,807,970 £34 £1.28
France 177 £13,119,945 86,759,489 £269 £0.56
Germany 404 £11,360,496 147,858,013 £166 £0.46
Italy 119 £14,678,220 63,188,293 £393 £0.59
Netherlands 194 £4,492,095 34,028,530 £124 £1.07
Norway 80 £9,267,488 9,594,524 £544 £1.78
Poland 300 £17,837,082 99,522,553 £1,179 £0.15
Russia 226 £7,672,205 49,724,588 £393 £0.39
Spain 321 £17,118,242 461,602,142 £627 £0.06
Sweden 137 £17,247,346 16,788,313 £315 £3.26
Switzerland 114 £5,603,571 27,977,799 £648 £0.31
North America 2,533 £203,475,709 946,323,445 £1,079 £0.20
Canada 589 £6,489,996 94,110,650 £145 £0.48
USA 1,944 £196,985,713 852,212,795 £1,369 £0.17
7
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
Key takeaways 8
• 6,763 articles were generated
for VisitBritain with a total AVE
of £447 million recorded. Only
an additional £53 million is
needed to reach the annual
target for 2013.
• A potential global audience of
3.1 billion was reached by
coverage for the half year,
with pieces generating an ROI
of £550 and a CPT of £0.26
Almost half of
coverage (47%)
featured the
GREAT campaign,
all coverage
favourable in tone,
90% strongly so.
78% of articles
contained a
message. Brazil
and China were the
most message rich
countries with 96%
and 94%
respectively.
• Europe had the lowest message
penetration at 61%, while
APMEA and North America
achieved similar results (85%
and 84% respectively).
• VisitBritain’s music event in
Shinjuku and the extended
partnership with the Barclays
Premier League contributed to
mentions of the GREAT campaign.
Two third of all
coverage contained
a prominent
mention of a
destination within
Britain, with China
& Hong Kong
generating the
highest proportion
of prominent
mentions (82%).
• Prominent stories include
VisitBritain’s £2 million partnership
deal with Emirates Airlines.
99% of
coverage was
favourable,
78% strongly
so.
• China had the highest
proportion of strongly
favourable coverage
(98%) and generated no
unfavourable articles.
11% of all
coverage
featured a
VisitBritain
spokesperson,
with Brazil the
most prominent
region (28%).
• The Rock and Rio music festival
was a key driver of coverage to
feature a spokesperson,
boosting the result for Brazil.
• Only 3% of European content
featured a spokesperson.
Only 21
unfavourable
pieces were
generated
during this
period.
• Several Chinese items reporting on
news of 40 people being stuck on a
roller coaster ride at the
Chessington World of Adventures in
Surrey drove unfavourable articles.
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
Media landscape
Media type breakdown by market and volume and AVE
6%
23%
17%
8%
2% 1%
5%2%
9%
18%
1% 2%
6%5% 6%
13%10%
1%3%
56%
1% 1%2%
1% 1% <1%0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0%
20%
40%
60%
National newspapers
(print)
Regionalnewspaper
(print)
Consumermagazine
(print)
Travelmagazine
(print)
Trade magazine
(print)
Radio TV National newspapers
(website)
Regional newspaper
(website)
Portals and lifestyle
(website)
Blogs Trade magazine
(website)
Travel magazine
(website)
Perc
en
tag
e o
f AV
E
Perc
en
tag
e o
f art
icle
s
Brazil North America China and Hong Kong Europe APMEA
28%
67%
5%
Online
Broadcast
39%
55%
6%
Online
Broadcast
70%
23%
7%
Online
Broadcast
86%
14%
Online
Broadcast
Media format broken down by region
42%
52%
6%
Online
Broadcast
Although TV contributed 5% of the volume of overall
coverage, it accounted for 57% of AVE. This result was
driven by mentions in high profile TV channels such as E!
Entertainment (US) and NHK (Japan).
More than half (58%) of all Consumer magazine (print) articles were
generated in Europe. Titles such as Readers Digest (Netherlands) and
Grande (Belgium) reported on the “fantastic architectural design” of The
Shard, calling it “the newest tourist attraction” in London.
North American titles reporting on
VisitBritain’s partnership with
Bloomingdale's drove mentions on
Trade magazine (website).
87% of radio content was generated in
Poland. Polish channels such as
Superstacja reported on the Queen’s
60th anniversary celebration.
9
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
Campaigns
Key campaigns by volume, AVE and OTS
3,694
£267m 3,295
1.9b £255m
1.6b
3,166
£220m 2,008
1.3b £147m
852m 1,953
£148m 1,097
691m £38m 871
347m £57m 737
271m £37
363m 520
£8.6 359
176m £1.3
33m
Jam
es
Bo
nd
Cu
ltu
re
Heri
tag
e
Mu
sic
Yo
u'r
e
Invit
ed
GR
EA
T
cam
paig
n
Co
un
trysid
e
Fo
od
Sh
op
pin
g
Sp
ort
Culture was the most prolific
campaign, appearing in over half
(55%) of all coverage. 59% of
Culture items directly referenced the
GREAT campaign, with London,
Scotland, Wales and greater England
all highlighted in mentions of specific
events, festivals and cultural
excursions. One third of culture
coverage originated in USA titles,
with family friendly theatre a key
talking point.
Britain’s Royal Heritage was a key
driver of overall Heritage mentions,
often mentioned alongside Culture in
pieces discussing the birth of Prince
George. While London was a key
destination within this coverage,
pieces also noted the royal
connections to locations in Scotland
and Wales.
Coverage highlighting Wales often
conveyed the Countryside and Food
campaign pillars (63% and 42%
respectively). Driven by regional
syndication and strong online pickup,
a high proportion of these items
appeared in American publications
such as CNN Travel, Wall Street
Journal and the New York Times.
Coverage relating to the forthcoming
2014 Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow aided Sport volumes, noted
in one fifth of pieces for the
campaign. Items largely appeared
within countries who would be
participating in the Games, such as
Australia and Canada.
10
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
60%
41%
36%33%
17%
3% 2% 2%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Image Headline mention
1st paragraph Other URL VisitBritain URL Online Video Front Page VisitBritain phone number
Perc
en
tag
e o
f art
icle
s
Impact measures are elements
within coverage that are proven
to draw reader attention or
provide actionable information
to your audience. For the first
half of 2013, 88% of VisitBritain
coverage included an impact
measure.
Images, the most prolific
measure, were featured in 60%
of items most predominantly
within print and online pieces.
42% of items featured a call to
action. These pieces recorded
more than a quarter of the
overall OTS (28%), thereby
creating an opportunity for
almost 900 million consumers
to access Great Britain’s
tourism information.
84% of headline mentions were
strongly favourable, seven
percentage points higher than
overall coverage (77%). This
was boosted by headlines such
as “Britain's most beautiful
views” (CNN).
Key metrics
Impact measures
Prominence
88%
12%
With impact measure
68%
8%
24%
Prominent mention
Mention in passing
No mention
<1%
<1%12%
86%
Strongly Unfavourable
Slightly Unfavourable
Slightly Favourable
Strongly Favourable
Please note: prominence measures the presence of the organisation within an article. The highest prominence
measure is ‘Prominent mention’ and would indicate that the organisation has achieved a strong coverage ownership,
whereas ‘Mention in passing’ shows that there has been little opportunity for the communication of key messages. ‘No
mention’ is assigned to coverage generated by the VisitBritain team which does not feature an exact Britain tourism
mention – this will often instead refer to a partner organisation or event in which VisitBritain has had direct influence.
Prominent mentions accounted for over a
third of coverage and generated a high
proportion of strongly favourable articles
(86%). In addition to articles reporting on
the arrival of the Royal Baby, other
prominent stories for the period included
VisitBritain’s partnership with British
Airways to offer special prices to Chinese
and Japanese passengers. The
promotion featured prominently in high
readership titles such as Xinmin Evening
News and Ameba News.
11
VisitBritain: April 2013 – September 2013
12
THE DARK SIDE OF
PAY-TO-PLAY
Editor of Major Newspaper
WITNESSES
Editor of National
Travel Magazine
Editor of Regional Newspaper /
Travel Freelancer
Travel Freelancer Guidebook writer /
paid-content writer
Travel T V Producer
Information about the negative side of pay -to-
play is almost non-existent
Out of 10 journalist I asked to interview on
this topic all immediately responded yes
All the on-staff editors/journalists stepped out
for the conversations and shared their
personal mobiles
UNCOVERING SECRETS
Branded website section sold at $80k, writers being
paid $25 per story
Advertorials less clear than ever before, editors
confused by their own outlet
Major outlets offering un-marked advertorials
Advertisers buying outlets
Regional publications turning into junk mail
RED FLAGS IN THE INDUSTRY
“Readers are starting to distrust all written content”
“We are permanently damaging the viewer/reader -outlet relationship”
“We are hammering nails in our own casket every time we accept/support paid content”
“If I knew a publicist was encouraging her clients to participate in paid content I would think less of him/her”
“The tradition of journalism is steeped in objectivity, therefore a journalist could not create paid content”
HOW JOURNALIST REALLY FEEL
Pay-to-play is inevitable, it’s like fighting the internet
It’s up to us to support a non -blurred line for the
future of journalism and publicity
The term “brand journalist” is a bad word, a
journalist and a paid content creator should be two
clearly separated professions
THE TAKEAWAY