INTRODUCTION

The Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens returns to Edinburgh for a weekend Festival of Rugby (31 May – 1 June 2008).  16 teams from all over the rugby playing globe will be participating including New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Fiji, England and Scotland.  

VisitScotland will complement the SRU’s marketing plan for this event by focusing on radio and regional press out-with Scotland in and around areas of access and where rugby catchments overlap such as Leicester, Bath and Gloucester.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

• Achieve 10,000 visits to www.visitscotland.com/rugby as a result of the promotion.
• Achieve 2,500 competition entrants; of which 25% are opt-in acquisitions.  
• Increase visits / ticket sales to Edinburgh, 31 May – 1 June, for the Edinburgh Sevens event by 5% referral link to www.edinburgh7s.com from our activity.  
• Achieve 20% click through rate to the accommodation pages of www.visitscotland.com from www.visitscotland.com/rugby.

ACTIVITY DETAILS

Media Activity

6 regional press titles and 6 regional radio titles as follows:

• Leicester Mercury
• Western Daily Press + on-line banner
• Bristol Evening Post + on-line banner (thisisbristol.com)
• Manchester Evening News
• Stockport Express
• Sheffield News

Readership total – 1,644,422 Circulation total – 490,621

• Heart 106
• Bath FM
• Severn Sound GCAP
• Original Bristol 106.5
• Revolution 96.2
• Pulse FM

Listenership – 740,800 per week

VS WEBSITE ACTIVITY

12 x ‘win a trip to Edinburgh and the Rugby 7s’ competitions offered signposting www.visitscotland.com/rugby + home page banner on www.visitscotland.com/rugby site signposting rugby sevens website for ticket sales: www.edinburgh7s.com.

In addition, 1 x ‘win a trip to Edinburgh this festival weekend for the Rugby 7s / Taste of Edinburgh’ competition placed on the following sites:

• www.edinburgh.org
• www.citybreaks.visitscotland.com
• EatScotland site http://eatscotland.visitscotland.com/default.aspx
• Radio VisitScotland broadcast on www.citybreaks.visitscotland.com

TIC Activity

• 4,000 7s promotional flyers displayed at Edinburgh TIC/ Edinburgh Airport / satellite Lothians TICs.  
• Opportunity offered of TIC display in the rugby rich regions like the Borders and Glasgow for locals who use the services of our TICs to find out what’s on throughout Scotland.
• Offered opportunity of using Edinburgh TIC as sales channel for 7s tickets.

PR Activity

• Roger McStravick liaising with SRU PR Manager on collaborative releases.  

RM Programme

• Rugby 7s featured in April RM bulletin to c.70,000 contacts as per segments below.  

TARGET AUDIENCE

Primary Targets: groups, individuals, rugby purists/existing customers (18-55) + families.  The Sevens are well known for introducing young players to international rugby.  In terms of segmentation the best fit is our C1, C5, W1 and W2 markets. Please see UK target markets for more information.

CAMPAIGN PARTNERS

• Ramada Jarvis Hotel
• Sheraton Grand Hotel
• Apex European Hotel
• Marriot Hotel, Dalmahoy
• Apex European Hotel
• Marriot Hotel, Maybury
• Holiday Inn
• The Royal Terrace Hotel

MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

• Web visits
• Competition entrants
• Opt-in database acquisitions
• Ticket sales
• Flyer pick-up at TIC

To register interest in this campaign, please contact your local Business Relationship Manager.