Investigating marketing campaign effectiveness for VisitScotland

VisitScotland were seeking insight into how effective their direct marketing campaigns were at communicating to their UK and international customers. Of particular interest to them was how individual campaigns had stimulated visits to Scotland and the particular ROI contribution each made.

To find out this information, BVA BDRC took a representative sample of customers who either received the VisitScotland mailer or E-Zine, or used the website. These customers were surveyed immediately after each campaign to investigate the impact of the campaign and their holiday taking behaviour in Scotland. The carefully designed set of questions which measured trip taking behaviour, spend, advertising awareness and campaign influence enabled BVA BDRC to calculate the ROI for each individual campaign.

These ROI figures were utilised by senior management within VisitScotland as well as externally by Local Government offices. New marketing approaches such as more online communication in campaigns were developed from the detailed understanding of the effectiveness of individual campaigns provided by BVA BDRC. These new approaches helped VisitScotland design more effective future campaigns and preserve Scotland’s reputation as a ‘must visit’ destination.