Our Meet the Team series spotlights staff across VisitScotland.
In this feature, Senior Global Marketing Manager Kathryn Macdonald shares how she used her language skills in her early career at VisitScotland, how our upcoming marketing activity will inspire and encourage more visitors in the autumn and winter months, and where she likes to take the family for adventures.
I began life at VisitScotland looking after the ancestral market and my eyes were opened to the scale and opportunity that this market brings; whilst more than 40 million people globally can claim Scottish ancestry, all their journeys are different and unique.
After my role with the ancestral market, I moved to working with the German market - I studied German and History at Aberdeen University and this was a great way to keep my German active. Marketing is constantly evolving and it’s important to be adaptable and curious and to anticipate new ideas and opportunities.
With tools from completing the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Institute of Sales Promotion (ISP) diplomas over the years, I’ve loved working with our partners and stakeholders to expand campaigns and have spent most of my time working on our domestic market activity which represents a significant proportion of the visitors Scotland welcomes each year.
My current role is Senior Manager in Global Marketing working alongside a hugely collaborative and hard-working team of 12. We look after media buying (with our agency Carat) and delivery for our key markets of the US, UK, France and Germany.
We also manage our regional and sector stakeholders from the marketing side and identify opportunities with our network of partners to produce creative, effective and measurable joint campaigns.
Our ultimate aim is to create demand for the incredible tourism and events products Scotland has to offer. Success is a team effort and we all enjoy knitting together campaigns and using our earned and owned channels to create more powerful noise.
Find out about our marketing strategy and how it shapes our approach to reaching global audiences.
We have a full, rolling programme of marketing activity over the autumn and winter months to drive demand and grow the value of tourism and events.
We're lucky we have so much to talk about in Scotland across the year - powerfully enriching experiences that speak to our audience's emotional drivers of wellbeing, landscape, awe, escapism, nostalgia, connections and warmth of welcome.
Insights are telling us that audiences place greater trust in the lived experiences of others and so, we will be bringing our autumn and winter stories to life through real, authentic experiences from a community of storytellers sharing how Scotland is good for the soul.
Our marketing and storytelling activity will target the US, UK, France and Germany and we’ll be working with a range of partners as well as our regional partners. More to come on that in the coming weeks.
Our current marketing activityI’ve always felt it a privilege to work at VisitScotland. Every day is different and will likely bring a new challenge but the mix and variety keeps me motivated.
Everyone I work with brings their own unique ideas and skills to the bigger jigsaw; we all bring something different and I really enjoy harnessing that.
On the human level, I truly don’t think I could work with more caring, kind and supportive colleagues. Work is a big part of life but life out with work is where my heart sits. You can never underestimate the importance of family, health and happiness.
My family is my world and we enjoy going all over Scotland. I know the Highlands very well, being from Highland stock, and particularly love the islands, always bringing a calming majesty where you can often find a beach to yourself which really is good for the soul.
We also tried Glenshee for the first time this year in February and my children adored the ski-ing (the rest of us enjoying a taste of Scotland in their excellent café.) We know the support we want to bring the ski industry in Scotland and will be helping to promote them over our autumn and winter activity.