The Homecoming Story
Homecoming Scotland 2009 was an inspirational
programme of events running from Burns Night to St Andrew’s Day
which motivated people with Scottish ancestry, as well as those who
simply love Scotland, to “Come Home” in 2009.
Marketing and PR
The marketing and PR teams began their work on Homecoming in
2007. In assocation with diaspora groups and assocations, the
message was sent out to ancestral Scots to "come home" to Scotland
in 2009. The themes of Homecoming formed an early part of this
communication:
- Burns
- Whisky
- Golf
- Great Minds and Innovations
- and Scottish clans and ancestry.
Press familiarisation trips and events continued through 2007
and 2008. The international marketing trade were targeted from 2007
onwards, to build interest in Homecoming. Through events such as
VisitScotland Expo 2008 and 2009, the industry were encouraged to
develop Homecoming-themed packages and promotions. An online
“Homecoming Toolkit” providing imagery and logos, editorial content
and downloadable events listings was developed for use by all
tourism businesses. Consumer marketing and PR, which started in
autumn 2008, ran throughout 2009.
Events
A programme of more than 400 events took place between January
and October 2009. All events directly funded by Homecoming Scotland
were either existing events that added brand new Homecoming
elements to enhance and/or extend their event or were brand new
events created especially for the Homecoming celebrations.
Highlights
Some highlights:
- An increased database of around 200,000 new visitor prospects
through our core marketing activity and a further 350,000 names
from campaigns where Homecoming is featured.
- The most comprehensive Diaspora and Scots interest group
database ever developed with more than 6,500 organisations
worldwide
- 30 international travel trade partnerships within
VisitScotland’s Homecoming marketing campaigns (9 airlines and 21
travel trade companies)
- More than 30 partnerships with key brands and companies - from
Coca Cola to Walkers Shortbread, First Bus and Clydesdale Bank
- The international I am a Scot campaign reached 95 million
people across the world
- 86 international travel companies developed Homecoming themed
products and 53 international operators carried Homecoming themed
promotions
- 71% of tourism businesses say that Homecoming Scotland was a
positive initiative for Scotland
- The Caledonia TV advert has been played across the world to
millions of viewers as the soundtrack to the initiative, with
research showing that 78% of UK viewers felt more positive about
Scotland after viewing it (87% in Scotland)
International marketing activity ranged from joint European
Promotions with Easyjet, a joint promotion in Russia with Irn Bru,
and the ‘I’m a Scot ‘ Homecoming campaign.
The event programme has been heralded as a major success with
many of the events breaking audience records. Events such as the
StAnza Poetry Festival, the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, the
Royal Highland Show, and Perthshire Amber all saw increased ticket
sales or attendance.
Downloads - The Story
This is a downloadable document with more details on all the
marketing, PR and events activity carried out for Homecoming,
including samples of creative content plus more statistics.
Homecoming Scotland
2009 - The Story
PDF document 3.9 mb
