the great pr debate: taking on travel...

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


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.


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


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.


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%

Print

Online

Broadcast

39%

55%

6%

Print

Online

Broadcast

70%

23%

7%

Print

Online

Broadcast

86%

14%

Print

Online

Broadcast

Media format broken down by region

42%

52%

6%

Print

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.

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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

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Mu

sic

Yo

u'r

e

Invit

ed

GR

EA

T

cam

paig

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Co

un

trysid

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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


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


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

the great pr debate: taking on travel...

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