An e-marketing campaign to boost visits to Britain - part of the successful Only in Britain. Only in 2002 initiative launched following September 11 - has been highly commended at the DirectReponse SMART awards.

Judged as “a clear, tidy project done in adversity, with good sales results,” in the ‘Best Work in e-Marketing’ category, the campaign accounted for 15% of P&O Ferries’ European sales for the year and enabled VisitBritain to build a database of ? million potential tourists for future campaigns. A fifth of the 250,000 people who received the e-mail went onto the site to look through the special offers and learn more about visiting Britain.

As part of the ‘Only in Britain. Only in 2002’ campaign, VisitBritain - the authority for tourism in Britain - and Euro RSCG Circle produced a weekly e-mail update for visitors to the website, www.onlyinbritain.com
. Themed around ‘quirky Britain’, each update highlighted a carefully selected array of special offers for travel, accommodation and attractions along with competitions and events, as well as a viral tennis game featuring the TV campaign’s tennis-playing armoured knights.

VisitBritain’s Head of Partner Marketing, Deirdre Livingstone, said:

“With the current downturn in global travel, we had a need for a immediate and highly responsive drive to increase awareness of Britain as a holiday destination. And given the strength of the web as a cost-effective information channel, we decided on an e-marketing campaign to drive both customer acquisition and retention on the website. The results, as can be seen, were fantastic and we’re delighted with this award.”

The SMART Awards recognise and reward successful direct marketing campaigns and the achievements of outstanding suppliers that others can learn and raise their own standards.
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