New Swansea Bay campaign to reach millions

Swansea Council’s campaign will see the videos appearing in locations including London Paddington, the London Underground, London Victoria, Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Central over coming weeks and months.

The video adverts will also be shown in a number of high-profile shopping malls, including the Trafford Centre in Manchester, Liverpool One and the Birmingham Bullring.

The outdoor advertising accompanies four new Swansea Bay Moments videos that have been uploaded to social media websites to encourage empty nesters, couples, families and thrill-seekers to visit this autumn. The videos feature Gower’s beaches, Mumbles and some of rural Swansea’s highlights, including Penllergaer Valley Woods. Surfing and sea kayaking are some of the many activities also featured.

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development and Regeneration, said: “Tourism is already worth more than £390 million to Swansea Bay’s economy, so the challenge is to encourage even more visitors here and further raise Swansea Bay’s profile across the world. Increased visitor numbers lead to increased spend in local businesses and help attract additional future investment which in turn will sustain and generate new jobs for local people.

“Our tourism team is working creatively to make the most of modern technology and social media to help reach new visitors. The combination of our new Swansea Bay Moments videos with the digital adverts in some of the UK’s busiest shopping centres and railway stations has the potential to reach tens of thousands of potential visitors right across the world.

“We also have a destination management plan in place that means we’re working closer than ever alongside our tourism businesses and other local tourism organisations to improve the tourism experience across Swansea Bay.”

The Council is also looking to once again attract as many high-profile journalists, bloggers and video bloggers as possible to Swansea Bay to generate positive media coverage about the destination. Last year, these activities generated more than £1m in public relations value.

A 30-second advert about Swansea Bay will play before all the Swansea Bay Moments videos on YouTube. Digital adverts are also being put on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and TripAdvisor to reinforce the video adverts in shopping malls and railway stations. Other activities will include a Google AdWords campaign.

“This is all about maximising the exposure Swansea Bay gets to ensure there’s the opportunity to reach the target audience with our adverts on a number of occasions,” said Cllr Francis-Davies. “The more Swansea Bay is in people’s minds, the greater the chance will be that they’ll visit. The combination of all the online and offline activities of our campaign is carefully integrated and planned to help Swansea Bay and our many marketing partners stand out from the crowd.”

Visit Swansea Bay has more than 50,000 Facebook fans and 10,000 Twitter followers.