M&M Global spoke to Chris Gottlieb, top marketer at London & Partners, about the Grand Prix-winning campaign at the World Media Awards 2016.
The big success story from last night’s (16 March) inaugural World Media Awards was London & Partners’ ‘Official Guest of Honour’.
The promotional body for the UK capital walked away with both the Travel & Tourism prize, as well as the coveted Grand Prix, for its campaign offering one lucky visitor a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip to London.
Consumers in key markets including the US, Australia, Germany, France, Italy and Spain were invited to enter to enjoy an itinerary of 30 events, featuring celebrities such as Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Professor Stephen Hawking, Downton Abbet actor Jim Carter and ballerina Darcey Bussel.
Placing video “at the creative heart of the campaign”, London & Partners tied up with Yahoo and Tumblr, as well as running OOH and radio advertising in selected markets. The competition winner’s visit was then curated into a series of videos published on visitlondon.com and shared globally through external media buy, social media and email.
It became London & Partners’ most successful campaign to date, with marketing and media efforts driving over 27 million video views, 2.4m visits to VisitLondon.com, prompting 749,000 applications to win a trip, and generating an estimated £16m of value to London’s economy.
Double triumph
Speaking to M&M Global after the double triumph at the World Media Awards, London & Partners chief marketing and communications officer Chris Gottlieb (pictured below, far right) said it is vital to produce engaging content.
“I’m very lucky because I have the job of promoting arguably the greatest city on Earth, and my job is very simple: I just look at all the amazing things going on in London, and we amplify that and show it,” said Gottlieb.
“I spent nine years at the BBC, so hopefully I have an inherent understanding of what people want to write about. We locked ourselves in a room with Brooklyn Brothers and we brainstormed what would be the most amazing tourist experience, and then set about trying to reach 20 partners.
“It’s all the more important nowadays to have content that people want to watch. People are busy, they have multiple choices, so you’ve got to engage them. That is why when you get incredible people coming over, having their dreams come true, hopefully you can’t fail to engage,” he added.
