The new tourism marketing body for the United States of America, Brand USA, has announced a successful start to their campaign in the UK.

The campaign, created in partnership with JWT, the organisation’s advertising agency, launched in the UK on May 1st with a heavy media presence.

Using a mix of 60-, 20- and 15-second television spots, as well as digital, billboard, out of home (e.g. London underground stations) and trade print advertisements, as well as a robust online and social media, the launch phase was aimed at potential visitors.

The first phase of the campaign lasted for three months, during which UK spend amounted to over £2.3 million and preliminary results indicate strong upward trends in intent to visit, consumer sentiment, and engagement.

By tracking before and after research via Google Analytics and a global brand tracker with Hall & Partners, results show a strong increase in intent to visit the USA.

In the United Kingdom, the percentage of those who intend to visit the United States of America has grown 14 per cent in the months since the launch.

Since the April 23rd launch of DiscoverAmerica.com, there have been two million page views globally, and more than 14,000 downloads of the campaign song, ‘Land of Dreams’, sung by Rosanne Cash.

Jay Gray, vice president of business development, Brand USA, said: “We are extremely pleased how the campaign has run to date, and with the results so far.

“We are committed in our activities to the UK market, the largest overseas visitor market to America, and very much look forward to developing further initiatives that will reach both the trade and the consumer directly.”

The United Kingdom is the United States’ largest overseas market for international inbound travel (Canada and Mexico are the largest international markets to the USA). 

Of the 62 million international visitors to the United States in 2011, 3.84 million visitors were from the United Kingdom.