2022 Destination Marketing Activities

For 2022 we are pleased to report that over 90% of the ERBID Levy has been collected and we have invested £387,000 PLUS £100,000 in Event development.  Below we summarise our key 2022 Destination Marketing Projects which we deliver in partnership with professional agencies and specialist contractors in order to secure best value and fast turnaround when required.   

ERBID Marketing Report 2022

At the end of 2022, the ERBID Co produced a round-up of the year's Destination Marketing activity.  This report can be viewed and downloaded here.

NEW - EVENT DEVELOPMENT FUND

Through a new partnership with Torbay Council, including the new Bay of Lights Winter Event, English Riviera Walking Festival and expansion of England’s Seafood FEAST. These events were supported with targeted digital marketing campaigns including carousels, newsfeeds and Google responsive display adverts with a primary purpose to raise awareness and to attract new visitors to the resort.  The new Bay of Lights Digital Marketing Campaign has been hugely successful. The ERBID Company have committed a £100k Events budget for the 5 years of ERBID2 (2022-2026) to be matched by Torbay Council giving a total budget of £600k over 5 years.    

Advertising Campaigns

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING – we are slowly seeing a return of international travellers to the resort as independent travellers, students, coach, school groups and business travellers start to return. In 2022 we worked with Meet England and Meet Devon to represent the English Riviera at overseas travel events including IBTM. 2022 investment in international advertising was £5k.

NATIONAL ADVERTISING –  2022 National Advertising included nearly 40 high profile large format outdoor digital screens in our core target market areas including: Birmingham, Coventry, Nottingham and Manchester, raising awareness of the area and driving traffic to the official English Riviera website.  In just 2 weeks over 150,000 visits were made to the official website.  2022 investment in National Advertising was £75k.    

REGIONAL ADVERTISING

SPRING RADIO CAMPAIGN - This campaign (listen here) ran for 7 weeks in total with a new 40 sec advert on the following Radio Stations: Heart Bristol/Weston & Bath, Greatest Hits Radio (GHR) Bristol/Bath. 2022 cost £26k.

English Riviera Website  with over 1200 pages of rich content promoting the resort, it is designed to inspire visitors to make this their destination of choice, with over one million visitors to the site in 2022. Please remember that all Levy Payers are entitled to a complimentary full page advert on the site.   Investment in the website in 2022 was £39k.       

DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS – supporting our National Advertising, our strategic vision is for the English Riviera to be a year-round destination. 2022 has presented some serious economic challenges impacting travel and holiday-taking, starting with the dramatic increase in the cost of fuel. In response we made the decision to invest in new campaign targeting within a 2-hour drive time. Several other Digital Campaigns promoting Spring, Autumn and Winter have also been invested in, with total investment in 2022 in Digital Marketing Campaigns totalling £80k.         

SOCIAL MEDIA

2022 has seen the appointment of a specialist Social Media contractor to help us manage the increasing number of social media channels we now use to promote the resort including: Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and YouTube. The official English Riviera Facebook platform has both grown in followers and shares of posts with new user generated images and videos dramatically increasing the choice of creative assets we now have available to reach new visitors. Total investment in 2022 in Social Media Activity totals £32k           

GROUPS MARKETING

NEW GROUPS DIRECTORY
2022 saw the production of a new English Riviera Groups Directory. The purpose of the directory is to present all the accommodation, attractions and ERBID Food and Drink businesses that warmly welcome group business of 20 people or more. An electronic version of the new guide is also available to use to service Group Enquiries received via the English Riviera Visitor Information Centre. This new guide is taken to the various Group Shows and Exhibitions we attend on behalf of Levy Payers including: 2022 Group Leisure Show  in Milton Keynes. £10k has been invested in Groups Marketing in 2022.

CRUISE MARKETING

2022 has seen the formation of new partnership with Tor Bay Harbour Authority and the ERBID Company and the re-launch of Cruise Torquay and attending Cruise Britain events to raise our profile and encourage more Cruise Companies to include Torquay on their itineraries. No direct costs to date.

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY

We have continued to invest in quality professional images and videos/reels to expand our bank of creative assets available to promote the resort and share with levy payers. In 2022 we invested in a new family photoshoot, and also a partnership shoot with English Riviera Attractions shooting 19 different attractions across the resort with over £30k being spent on professional photography and videography in 2022.  

All photos have been uploaded on the new English Riviera Image Library  to share with you to assist with your own marketing.  Simply register then you can log on and download over 2000 images copyright free at any time. £34k

VISITOR INFORMATION & LOCAL ADVERTISING

During 2022 we have expanded the opening hours of the Visitor Information Centre and produced a number of new Visitor Guides with all publications also available in a digital and easily sharable format. The Visitor Information budget for 2022 was £75k. New publications include:

The Agatha Christie Mile – building on the interest in the Agatha Christie Legacy.

English Riviera Summer & Winter Visitor Guides - in partnership with Clearsky Publishing and in response to specific requests from Levy Payers during the ERBID2 Consultation. 

RESEARCH

The monthly confidential How’s Business ERBID Survey continues to provide vital evidence and we want to encourage more businesses to take part to support our lobbying efforts. In 2022 we have also invested in a Visitor Survey and taken part in post COVID research with the Greater South West Tourism Partnership and invested £7,500 in Research in total.