Advertising Case Study

VisitBritainBackground

VisitBritain is the UK’s national tourism agency. Its mission

is to increase the value of tourism to Britain by promoting

the country as an international tourist destination.

Objective

The goal of VisitBritain’s most recent Facebook campaign

was to increase the size of its fan base. Active on the

platform since late 2009, VisitBritain manages a Facebook

Page called “Love UK”. In 2010, VisitBritain ran several

Facebook Ads campaigns to encourage people to like

the Love UK Page and become a part of the community.

The first year’s activity was successful in acquiring over

100,000 fans, so VisitBritain decided to embark on another

campaign to grow the numbers even further. “It’s about

getting our content in front of as many eyes as possible

around the world,” explains Justin Reid, Head of Digital and

Social Media for VisitBritain. “More fans means that we

can talk to more people on a daily basis.”

Approach

As VisitBritain anchors its campaigns to big events that

spark international interest in the United Kingdom, the

wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on

April 29th 2011 presented the ideal opportunity for a new

marketing push. The campaign ran for seven days, from

April 25th to May 1st, and used Page Like and Page Post

Sponsored Stories. Sponsored Stories allow businesses

to increase the visibility of organic News Feed stories

Facebook Executive SummaryClient:

Objective:

To increase its Facebook fan base and

engagement with fans

Solution:

Facebook marketing campaign using

Sponsored Stories, Marketplace Ads

and a unique and timely application

Key Lessons:

• SponsoredStoriescapitaliseon

people’s interest and trust in their

friends’ behaviour and can be a

fast, cost-effective way to grow a

fan base

• PagePostSponsoredStorieshelp

drive people to the client’s Facebook

Page and encourage engagement

with the messaging and activity

offered there

Justin Reid, Head of Digital and Social Media, VisitBritain

“With Sponsored Stories, within the space of 24 hours, the numbers had gone through the

roof. It was a runaway success.”

Advertising Case Study

more and the click-through-rate increased again

• ThroughtheuseofPagePostSponsoredStories

which increase the distribution of posts amongst

existing fans, engagement with the Love UK Page

has increased significantly. Feedback on Page

Posts has increased by 29 percent. “We are really

focusing on engagement levels; that’s what we

are most keen to capitalise on,” Justin says. “We

want people commenting and liking through the

News Feed but we are also trying to get them to

visit our Page.”

• VisitBritain’ssuccessontheFacebookplatform

has changed its thinking about its marketing

efforts. “We are no longer totally consumed with

driving traffic to our website,” says Justin. “It’s

about using the channel that people are going to

naturally. There is far greater reach on Facebook

than there ever will be by expecting people to

come to our website.”

The Future

“Our overall social media strategy is based on Facebook

because that’s where our main successes have been,”

explains Justin. “Facebook completely revolutionises

how we interact with the consumer on so many levels.”

VisitBritain will continue to use Facebook campaigns

to grow its fan base. The company has three more

campaigns set up for the coming year; the next one

starts in early June and will again center on Sponsored

Stories. The next major step change will be to embark

on an effective Facebook Commerce strategy, moving

towards integrating other digital and commercial

channels into a Facebook centred strategy.

when they relate to their organisation or business.

“They are surfaced to friends of friends who had liked

or commented on our Page before, which is the real

golden area,” Justin says. “We’d been looking at how to

really tap into that marketplace. If people are already

on the Love UK Page and interacting with it, then surely

their hundreds of friends would be interested as well.”

Another component of the campaign was Facebook

Marketplace Ads. The majority of the ads promoted a

Royal Wedding Predictions application that VisitBritain

developed to encourage interaction with the Love UK

Page. The application let people share their predictions

on quirky topics, such as the color of the Queen’s hat

and the weather on the wedding day.

Results

• ThenumberofpeoplewholikedtheLoveUK

Page doubled, increasing from 126,173 fans to

255,751 over the course of the seven-day campaign.

In one day alone, 42,000 people liked the Love

UK Page. “It had taken us ten months to get our

first 32,000 fans. With Sponsored Stories, within

the space of 24 hours, the numbers had gone

through the roof,” says Justin. “Just as

importantly, cost-per-acquisition dropped to

about one quarter of the ads’ cost-per-acquisition.

It really was a runaway success.”

• VisitBritainhadsetagoaltoreach250,000fans

by the end of its current financial year, in April

2012. “We achieved our target by the end of April

2011, without spending anywhere near the

amount of money that we had thought it might

cost,” Justin explains

• SponsoredStoriesprovedsoeffectivefor

VisitBritain that in the middle of the campaign it

decided to pause the Marketplace Ads and

direct the rest of the budget to Sponsored

Stories. Two weeks after the campaign ended

and the Royal Wedding mania had died down,

the company used Sponsored Stories for another

two days. The cost-per-acquisition dropped even