Birmingham’s Christmas campaign, run in partnership with Virgin Trains, has been a sparkling success reporting a record number of website hits and nearly £900,000 generated in media coverage for the area. The ‘Sparkling at Christmas’ campaign aimed to position Birmingham, The Black Country and Solihull as ultimate festive destinations.
Marketing Birmingham joined forces with partners across the city including Birmingham City Council, Retail Birmingham, Southside, the Jewellery Quarter, Brindleyplace, Colmore Business District and Broad Street, to deliver a holistic marketing and PR campaign promoting the region’s festive offering – from bars and restaurants to shopping and theatre – over the competitive Christmas period.
The ‘Sparkling at Christmas’ campaign, launched in October 2011, integrated marketing, PR, online and advertising activity with highlights including consumer polls, targeted weekend itineraries for national media, YouTube promotional videos and an interactive viral game.
The festive campaign generated a record 350,000 unique website visitors – a 50% increase from 2010 figures – with christmasinbirmingham.com receiving more than 5000 web hits weekly, and a TV advertisement that reached over 7 million people.
The campaign also generated nearly £900,000 of media coverage highlighting the region’s festive offering across international, national and regional media.
Birmingham’s world-class shopping which boasts 1000 shops within a 20-minute walk, buzzing theatres, mouth-watering restaurants and the biggest Frankfurt Christmas Market in the UK, continued to draw in the crowds with Visit Birmingham’s popular Meet & Greet service welcoming 114 coach loads into the city – a total of 5337 passengers from destinations such as London, Nottingham, Bristol and Manchester.
Headline results from the campaign reveal:
- The festive campaign generated a record 350,000 unique website visitors (visitbirmingham.com and christmasinbirmingham.com)
- Value of media coverage generated was nearly £900,000, up by over £100,000 in 2010
- Christmas YouTube films received over 21,000 unique views
- Website competitions generated over 29,000 entries
- Visit Birmingham’s Meet & Greet service welcomed 114 coaches, bringing 5337 passengers to the city
- Visitor enquiries to Tourist Information Centres reached 1.9 million from October to the end of December
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