Four Major Glasgow Promotions Take Flight in USA
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Glasgow’s profile in America will be sky-high from this week as a result of four major tourism initiativesbeing undertaken by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau.
The Bureau is at Tartan Week promoting its major events and festivals on a booth in the Scottish Village at Grand Central Terminal in New York from 31 March – 8 April.
The Scottish Village – run by VisitScotland - is a major part of the Tartan Week celebrations, designed to raise the profile of Scotland in its largest overseas tourism market.
The Bureau’s booth displays images of a modern, stylish Glasgow in support of the city’s brand Glasgow: Scotland with style. And features a 42” plasma screen showing a short, upbeat film about the city’s international festivals and events. View it at http://www.seeglasgow.com/eventsvideo
Staff manning the booth are also armed with the new Glasgow Diary for April, May and June and the Greater Glasgow & Clyde Valley Essential Guide.
More than 300,000 people visited the Scottish Village at Grand Central during Tartan Week 06 – at which Glasgow also had a presence – and the dedicated website for the initiative www.tartanweekny.com not only features information about the city, but also a competition to win either a 5-night break in Glasgow in August with day-trip to Edinburgh, or a 5-night break in Edinburgh over New Year 07/08 with a day-trip to Glasgow.
The competition highlights the fact that the two cities are sharing a large booth on the Scottish Village under the banner ‘Glasgow & Edinburgh’s International Festivals and Events’.
The Bureau is also sponsoring ‘Scotland Rocks’ – also part of the Tartan Week celebrations – a music gig at the Bowery Ballroom in New York on 4 April, featuring Glasgow bands, ‘Sons and Daughters’ and the ‘1990s’, as well as ‘Belle & Sebastian’ and ‘Mogwai’ DJs.
Meanwhile, a 14 day promotion on WBZ1030 – New England’s most listened to radio station reaching almost 5 million people – is due to start today, Monday, 2 April, to highlight Globespan’s new Boston – Glasgow route which starts on 25 May.
The initiative, which has been funded by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau to the tune of £15,000, has been developed in conjunction with VisitScotland as part of both organisations’ commitment to ensuring the route’s success.
The promotion comprises on-air promotional trails directing listeners to www.ultimateglasgow.com to win a fantastic four-night break in Glasgow for themselves and three friends, staying at luxurious Hotel du Vin at One Devonshire Gardens and choosing four “money can’t buy” activities to enhance their visit.
The prize-winner will be spoiled for choice, however, as there are nine different ‘add-ons’ to choose from including a $1,000 spending spree, private distillery tour, bagpiping lessons, chauffeur-driven tour of Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings, access all areas tickets for King Tuts, gourmet meal, behind the scenes tour of Hampden, seaplane trip and golf & spa day at Cameron House Hotel & Resort!
And on April 12, a three-month promotion kicks off with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the USA – the equivalent of the BBC – which has been developed in conjunction with both PBS and VisitBritain in New York.
The promotion centres on the Service’s annual fundraising drive and the ’Friendship Tour’ – an initiative conceived by VisitBritain back in 2002 to mark the special relationship between Britain and America, raise money for PBS and promote Britain’s major cities into the bargain.
Last year the promotion featured a pairing of Liverpool and Birmingham, and the year before that London and Brighton.
In 2007, however, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau managed to negotiate exclusive exposure of the city to 42 million Americans, thanks to the assistance of Glasgow’s 4-star hotels who offered the requisite 165 nights for the promotion at a vastly reduced cost to GCMB.
Highest bidders for the breaks enjoy travel to Glasgow courtesy of American Airlines and Britrail – who have supported the Friendship Tour since its inception – and five nights in a 4-star Glasgow hotel.
The promotion comprises on-air slots featuring footage of Glasgow architecture, museums, shops, nightlife and events, backed up by information in television listings magazines and a website www.visitbritain.com/friendship.
The offer of trips to Glasgow has met with a great response from PBS TV stations, according to Rick Lore, Director of On-air Fundraising at the Service, and a total of 33 have signed up to the Friendship Tour this year, ranging from Baltimore and Boston to Miami and San Francisco.
Councillor Alex Mosson, Chairman - Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, the agency with responsibility for the Glasgow: Scotland with style campaign, said:
"Tartan Week presents us with a high-profile platform where we can speak directly to consumers, key opinion formers and media in New York about Glasgow's outstanding programme of annual festivals and events as well as its style credentials.
“Add to that what we are also doing with VisitScotland to attract additional visitors from the Eastern Seaboard as a result of the new Globespan Boston – Glasgow route, and the PBS promotion which we are running in conjunction with VisitBritain and PBS themselves, and you can see that Glasgow’s profile in the States is going to be higher than ever before.”
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Issued by and further information from:
Nancy McLardie, Head of Public Relations
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Tel: 0141 566 0830