Seasonality Campaign
The South of Scotland offers awe-inspiring landscapes, memorable experiences and the warmest welcomes. Yet the visitor season in our destination is comparatively short, despite its varied, year-round offering. Through Scotland Starts Here, the SSDA brings together the key themes for each season and creates a promotional campaign to specifically highlight the uniqueness of autumn, winter and early spring in its annual Seasonality Campaign.
The 2024 to 2025 Seasonality Campaign takes on board the key themes for autumn, winter and early spring as identified in the SSDA's LLDD meetings. Key business priorities as well as the offering for each season is matched up with the campaign messaging to develop activities.
Campaign Activities:
- Social Media Promotion
- Themed website content
- Publishing Partnership with the Daily Record and Newcastle Chronicle
- Partnership with TripAdvisor
- Press trips and PR
- Short break competition
- Seasonal content development for SSDA Members such as new photography
Key Messages:
- Rural idyl: The South of Scotland is a rolling, rural, destination that offers fresh air, an authentic countryside experience, with lots of space to explore and reconnect; a warm welcome in every town and community with authentic, local experiences.
- Proximity: The South of Scotland is ‘real Scotland, real close’, especially for key audiences in England. But for all audiences it is true that it is quick and easy to have a short break in the South of Scotland. Extraordinary experiences are right on your doorstep, and the inspiration for your trip is right there, on ‘Scotland Starts Here’. We are close but also sufficiently different, distinctive and special to warrant an escape.
The activity launched on 23 September 2024 and runs until March 2025.
The activity targets key audiences within a 4-hour drivetime radius in Scotland and England with paid social media adverts, directing them to the campaign's website landing pages.
Results:
- In its initial 3 months, the campaign overachieved on key targets, generating over 35k visits (target: 25k) to the Scotland Starts Here website, making the seasonal pages the most popular pages on Scotland Starts Here.
- The advertisements reached over 500k people across social media channels
- For the first time a competition to win an off-season short break was included in the campaign. Four businesses generously offered prizes to create two trip itineraries, and almost 5,000 people across the UK entered.
