2024 Destination Marketing Activities

On this page we summarise our key 2024 Destination Marketing activities.  Destination Marketing projects are delivered in partnership with professional agencies and specialist contractors in order to secure best value and fast turnaround when required.

Paid digital campaigns - you can take a look at our live Meta campaigns by visiting the free to access Meta Ad Library here.  In addition, a year-round 'Always On' campaign runs on Google Search and Display.

The English Riviera features frequently in magazines, news articles and online. A selection of free to view online articles are included on our Press & Media page here.

November 2024

Digital campaigns running this month include:

'Always On'
What's On
Ready for... Culture
Ready for... Food and Drink (until 15th Nov)
Bay of Lights event campaign

£1.2 million destination marketing recovery fund press release
Electric Bay press release

October 2024

Delivery of England's Seafood FEAST 27th September - 13th October.  Around 40 eateries around the bay took part by holding events and special offers to celebrate our locally caught and landed fish and seafood. 

Digital campaigns running this month include:

'Always On'
What's On
Ready for... Culture
Ready for... Food and Drink
Bay of Lights event campaign

Social media impressions across all platforms in October were 1,166,000.

September 2024

Filming for new TV advertising in 2025 took place this month at attractions and locations around the region and wider area.  For more details please see our latest news page here.

Digital campaigns running in September included:

' Always on'
What's On campaign
Ready for... Culture
Ready for...Food & Drink
Seafood Feast

Social media impressions across all platforms in September exceeded 1,348,000.

Bay of Lights press release

August 2024

Press and PR activity continues with the appointment earlier this year of the Four marketing agency.  Their brief is to help showcase the resort, increasing awareness of everything it has to offer, and to facilitate media visits.  We all recognise the potential damage of negative media so it's important to get plenty of positive messaging out there. Positive media pieces during May to July, including coverage of the Airshow and news about the return of Seafood FEAST, have offered 64.2 million 'opportunities to see'.  Four press releases were issued during the period and press trips have been secured as a result.

What's On campaign

Ready for...Nature

Ready for...Food & Drink

Event campaign:  Seafood Feast

Social media impressions across all platforms in August were 929,000.

Agatha Christie Festival Press Release
SUP Championships Press Release
Seafood Feast Press Release 2
October Half Term and Halloween Press Release

July 2024

July was a busy month with the main family summer campaign running until mid-month, together with a 'Ready to Relax' campaign.  Meta campaigns still running include:

• 'Ready for...on the Water' - targeting the 'young actives' audience

• 'Ready for...Nature' - targeting 'empty nesters', solo travellers, cultural explorers and 'young actives'

• 'What's On' - for all audiences

• England's Seafood FEAST event campaign
  Coming up later in August is the launch of 'Ready for...Food and Drink'. 
  
  Social media impressions across all platforms in July exceeded 1139,000.

June 2024

With summer bookings still to play for, the ERBID Co has responded by investing £10k in a last minute, out of home (OOH)  family summer campaign. Roadside posters will be in place for the last two weeks of June in central Birmingham. These will be backed up by digital advertising, replicating the OOH ads, helping to drive more traffic to the English Riviera website.

At the time of writing, we have three 'Ready for...' campaigns running, with multiple versions of each advert. 'Ready for Nature' is aimed at key growth audiences defined as empty nesters, solo travellers, cultural explorers, and young actives.  'Ready to Relax' and 'On the Water' target young actives.  Audiences are generally located within a few hours drive of the English Riviera.  The aim is to diversify our visitor base and grow year-round business.

Social media impressions across all platforms in June were 797,000.

Electric Bay Press Release
Seafood Feast Press Release

May 2024

In May, we held a Destination Marketing Update for businesses, to present all the activities that the ERBID Company is undertaking for 2024.  Please visit our news page here for more details.

Some other key activities in May included:
● Managing the ERBID’s immediate response to the Crypto Outbreak and launching an emergency marketing campaign
● Successful delivery of the English Riviera Walking Festival 2024.
● Seven paid digital campaigns were running in May 2024, resulting in 5.8million impressions and 79k clicks
● Working on 2024 England’s Seafood FEAST Programme
● Supporting the English Riviera Airshow
English Riviera Airshow Press Release
To view the full May 2024 Marketing Report click here.

April 2024

April was a busy month in many regards, supporting a number of ongoing projects including:
● Commitment to Last Minute ERBID Summer Marketing Campaign
● ERBID funding for SUP and the first Great British Championships
● Launch of the new Geopark Discovery Experiences funded by UKSPF
● Working with our new national PR Agency FOUR
● Follow up from Cruise English Riviera being represented at Seatrade Global
● Assisting final preparations for the 2024 English Riviera Walking Festival
● Assisting final preparations for the 2024 Air Show
● Launching the 2024 England’s Seafood FEAST event
● Launch of the new Local Visitor Economy Partnership with Visit England

To view the full April 2024 Marketing Report click here.

March 2024

Three paid digital campaigns were undertaken in March 2024:
1) Always On campaign(12th January -31st December). The ads are being run on Google Search and Google Display. The ads lead to the dedicated landing page Visit the English Riviera in 2024.The total results for the month below.
2) English Riviera Walking Festival campaign(1st March -3rd May). An additional £2k Lead Generation campaign was launched from 21st March, split evenly with the aims to gain more Facebook Followers and Email Addresses.These ads are solely Facebook.
3) Family Summer Campaign(11th March -15th July). These ads are being run on Meta and Google Performance Max.

To view the full March 2024 Marketing Report click here.

February 2024

In February 2024, the English Riviera brand was in front of potential visitors almost 1.4 million times through a variety of digital marketing activity. This led to over 57,000 website users. And over 1,300 visitors helped through the ERBID Company Visitor Information Centre.
Two paid digital campaigns were undertaken in February 2024:
'Always On' - to boost website traffic to those interested in the English Riviera
'English Riviera Walking Festival' - to increase event bookings, and raise awareness of walking on the English Riviera.

To view the full February 2024 Marketing Report click here.

January 2024

Our focus in January has been to finalise the 2024 ERBID Marketing Strategy. A new national Google Search and Display Digital Marketing Campaign was launched in the New Year and has an immediate positive impact on driving visits to the English Riviera website. Meetings were held with our two Advertising Agencies (RH Advertising and Bigwave) to brief in all the planned Digital Marketing Campaigns for 2024 including:
● Summer Family Digital Marketing Campaign - targeting Birmingham
● Walking Festival Digital Marketing Campaign - targeting up to Bristol and Home Counties
● Air Show Digital Marketing Campaign - targeting within 3 hours drive
● New Cultural Explorers/Young Actives Out of Home Roadside Campaign - targeting Bristol
● New On the Water Digital Marketing Campaign - raising the profile of SUP
● New Relax/Wellness Digital Marketing Campaign

To view the full January 2024 Marketing Report click here.