Moray Speyside Regional Update

In this update you'll find:

• Introduction from Regional Director, David Jackson
• Supporting the industry
• Regional Marketing
• Consumer PR
• Consumer social media
• Corporate Press Activity

Introduction from David Jackson

It has been fantastic to see the return of domestic and international visitors to our region over the summer months. So too, many of our incredible events and festivals which have been back on strength in recent weeks. It was a particular highlight to attend the Findhorn Bay Arts Festival which returned with a Year of Stories-inspired programme for the first time since 2018.

As we approach the autumn and winter season, we will continue to work with partners in our tourism and events industry on promoting activity that extends the season and ensures Scotland - and Moray Speyside - remain front of mind for potential visitors.

We’re prioritising activities that will stimulate demand and new bookings for the industry to support its long-term recovery, with more details in the update below.

We know that many businesses are facing difficult decisions and are having to consider how they adapt their operations to manage the cost challenges. We would encourage you to visit our industry website for all the latest industry advice, support and guidance and we will bring you news on industry events taking place in the region. 

We also want to take the opportunity to celebrate our tourism and events industry who have worked tirelessly in the past two years. The return of the Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards in November offers us the chance to do this and I would like to wish all those shortlisted the very best of luck.

Consumer PR activity

Europe

North America

• In September, we invited a journalist writing for Maxim, an international Men's magazine, to come to Scotland to write about whisky. He visited various locations, which included exploring Speyside and staying in The Craigellachie. Maxim has a circulation of about 9 million readers each month.

Emerging Markets

• China:
  • Baijiahao.baidu.com (which has more that 33.4 million daily page views) published an article about Scottish whisky from Speyside region.
• South Korea:
  • Clothing brand, Henry Cotton’s, Travel Blog magazine featured a full edition of 58-page coverage of Scotland unique experiences, including whisky, textile, fishing and golf across the Highlands, Speyside and the Outer Hebrides.

Consumer social media

Influencer Marketing

We worked with Scottish influencer Del McCrimmon who created three TikTok videos to promote on our consumer channels. He specialises in drone photography/videography and his content was used to tie in with the marketing calendar theme of History & Culture.

Del has a large UK audience (38%), secondary US audience (25%) and a 3% engagement rate. As part of his content he visted Nelson's Tower in Forres and Rait Castle, near Nairn. The statistics of his content are:
The results of his content was:

• Nelson’s Tower: 36,1000 views, 1028 likes and 2 Comments
• Rait Castle: 391,300 views, 13,400 likes and 178 comments

Del's Rait Castle video is now our third most viewed influencer Tiktok video of 2022.

Corporate Press Activity

It's been a busy quarter for our corporate press team covering Moray Speyside. Some of the highlights include:

• We introduced David Jackson as the new Regional Director for Moray Speyside
• David attended a media launch event and photocall for the Findhorn Bay Festival
• David judged Milne’s High School’s French video challenge where pupils were tasked with creating a promotional video of Scotland