Kent Contemporary

In 2010 we worked in partnership with Kent County Council and M&C Saatchi to develop a destination marketing campaign, the Kent Contemporary Campaign, to persuade people to visit Kent. 

2010 was the first year of a three year campaign partly funded through the “Greet the World” and CAST Interreg programmes, to raise the profile of the county and promote short breaks.

The 2010 campaign was hugely successful and generated over £18 million of additional revenue for Kent. It was also calculated that the campaign delivered an ROI 47:1 i.e. for every £1 invested £47 was generated.

In 2011 we, along with our public and private sector partners, ran a similar high-profile campaign in London during the last few weeks of June, just before the summer holidays.

Campaign activity included:

Outdoor media

The main outdoor media campaign took place across London throughout June with supporting activity taking place across Kent for the remainder of the summer. 

  • 75 x 48-sheets across the London Underground network 
  • 69 x 48-sheets at key London sites
  • Eurotunnel (on train sites)
  • Stagecoach (in-bus)
  • Arriva (in-bus)
  • Arriva (bus stops)
  • Southeastern (on station)

Press event, London

We hosted a press event at 22 June in Shepherd Neame’s The Westminster Arms, located in central London.  National and regional press were invited to attend, along with Kent Members of Parliament and campaign partners. Guests were treated to Kentish hospitality in the form of Chapel Down wines, Shepherd Neame ales, Biddenden Apple Juices and Kent Crisps. All guests in attendance received a Kent hamper (courtesy of Foodari) and members of the press were given personal invitations to visit the Garden of England.

Shepherd Neame Promotions

As part of a new partnership with Shepherd Neame, “Kent Garden of England” branded bottle necks and beer mats were dispersed through the Shepherd Neame distribution network including London pubs and retail outlets.

Both promotions featured a competition to win a break to Kent, directing traffic to www.visitkent.co.uk.  The competition was also promoted via www.shepherdneame.co.uk 

The beer mats contained three separate Kent Contemporary images on the front and information about the competition on the reverse, including a Quick Response code (QR code).  Due to limited space on the bottle necks these featured a simple “Win a break for two in Kent” message.

Press releases

A schedule of press releases has been issued throughout the campaign and there has been continuous engagement with national and local media to keep interest and coverage going. 

Digital

The Visit Kent consumer website was adapted to incorporate the Kent Contemporary creative, which included:

  • Postcards featured on the homepage
  • A dedicated content page was created to highlight the new imagery, linked from the website homepage
  • Competition ran on the homepage 
  • An enewsletter was sent to the consumer database (52k contacts)
  • Social media activity through Facebook and Twitter promoted the competition

Results for this campaign will be available from December 2011.