BTA builds brand marketing team

The British Tourist Authority is setting up a brand management team to market the UK to overseas visitors as a “family of brands”.

The head of the BTA’s Canadian operation, Gareth James, will move back to the UK to become head of brand management.

James will run a four-strong team covering six geographical areas, or “brands”: Wales, Scotland, Northern England, Central England, London and the South.

Each brand manager will work with existing tourist authorities to develop a single image for their area.

BTA chief executive Anthony Sell hopes to build the kind of appeal he believes Scotland has developed. “It has succeeded in creating a country of swirling mists and wild tribesmen in kilts… It attracts a lot of people who would not necessarily have travelled so far.”

The team will also work on promoting specific lifestyle holidays. Walking, antique hunting or visiting historic houses and gardens will be treated as product lines.

The managers are Andrew Vaile, Helen Jones and Ian Woodward. James is also taking over the co-ordination of advertising worldwide following the retirement of former head of ad- vertising John Robinson.

Recommended

Build a safety net before jumping

Marketing Week

Many people connected to the Internet do not consider the safety of their data and this fact has been played on successfully by the media in recent months. Headlines such as “Computer experts see hackers gaining an upper hand in fight over security” in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal, have led many […]

Way UB’s cookie crumbled

Marketing Week

I remember that we impertinent hacks of the industrial circuit of the late Eighties used to refer to the chairman of United Biscuits (UB), affectionately if not imaginatively, as Sir Hector MacBiscuit. I relay this insight into the sophisticated wit of that period only to illustrate the cosiness with which we approached this important area […]

Kellogg rejig in US for JWT and Burnett

Marketing Week

Kellogg has realigned $30m of its business out of Leo Burnett and into J Walter Thompson in the US and Canada. JWT will now run the Kellogg’s Raisin Bran account. The brand is Kellogg’s second biggest seller in the US, adding to the Frosted Bran, Muelix, Smacks and Crispx it already handles. Kellogg says the […]