Establishing a strategic framework for leveraging films as a catalyst for destination marketing.
Establishing a strategic framework for leveraging films as a catalyst for destination marketing, Emma Wilkinson, Deputy Director of Global Marketing, VisitBritain, outlined how to integrate cultural equity with contemporary relevance. Launched in January 2025, following an 18-month development process, VisitBritain's "Starring Great Britain" campaign demonstrates how strategic intellectual property partnerships, integrated digital ecosystems and collaborative industry frameworks can address fundamental brand positioning challenges.
Establishing a strategic framework for leveraging films as a catalyst for destination marketing, Emma Wilkinson, Deputy Director of Global Marketing, VisitBritain, outlined how to integrate cultural equity with contemporary relevance. Launched in January 2025, following an 18-month development process, VisitBritain's "Starring Great Britain" campaign demonstrates how strategic intellectual property partnerships, integrated digital ecosystems and collaborative industry frameworks can address fundamental brand positioning challenges.
Establishing a strategic framework for leveraging films as a catalyst for destination marketing, Emma Wilkinson, Deputy Director of Global Marketing, VisitBritain, outlined how to integrate cultural equity with contemporary relevance. Launched in January 2025, following an 18-month development process, VisitBritain's "Starring Great Britain" campaign demonstrates how strategic intellectual property partnerships, integrated digital ecosystems and collaborative industry frameworks can address fundamental brand positioning challenges.
Britain's position as a globally recognised cultural epicentre has paradoxically become its most significant marketing challenge. International travellers' familiarity with British heritage and history has fostered a perception of the country as a 'museum' that is culturally significant but lacking urgency for immediate visitation. This brand positioning, while powerful in establishing recognition, fundamentally undermines conversion intentions by suggesting Britain would remain unchanged whether visited today or in five to ten years.
While potential visitors acknowledge Britain's cultural significance, they struggle to identify compelling reasons for prioritising it over other destinations. This perception gap represents a critical strategic vulnerability for a destination generating £33.7 billion in annual inbound tourism revenue to support 3.1 million jobs and 300,000 small and medium enterprises. VisitBritain's response to this lingering challenge demanded a fundamental repositioning strategy that could leverage existing cultural equity whilst injecting urgency and contemporary relevance.
The emergence of "set-jetting" as a significant travel motivation provided VisitBritain with a strategic opportunity to address the brand challenge through a culturally authentic lens. Research demonstrated that nine in ten potential inbound visitors expressed interest in visiting film or television locations, with one in six specifically motivated to travel beyond London to regional filming sites. This behavioural trend aligned perfectly with Britain's position as a global content production hub, hosting three of the world's five largest film franchises and generating £5.6 billion in annual film and high-end television production spend.
Rather than treating screen tourism as a niche market segment, VisitBritain recognised its potential as a comprehensive entry point for destination storytelling. In positioning film and television content not as the primary attraction, but as a content delivery mechanism for broader destination experiences, the "Starring Great Britain" concept enabled the DMO to leverage the emotional engagement and cultural currency of popular fandoms to drive deeper exploration of British regions.
The campaign's foundation rested on understanding that successful screen tourism transcends locations, requiring the creation of meaningful connections between entertainment content and authentic destination experiences. By transforming passive content consumption into active travel motivation, this approach enabled VisitBritain to use familiar cultural references, like Bridgerton's period drama aesthetics and Mission Impossible's action sequences, as pathways to showcase contemporary British dynamism and diversity.
Demonstrating thoughtful integration across multiple platforms, the campaign created seamless visitor journeys from initial content engagement to detailed trip planning. This was comprised of three interconnected layers:
The primary engagement mechanism used high-production value creative assets featuring intellectual property from major film studios, including Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. Initial exposure through intellectual property-focused creative assets established audience interest, while subsequent interactions delivered destination-specific content designed to build consideration and intent. This approach enabled VisitBritain to maintain engagement across extended consideration periods while progressively shifting focus from inspiration to travel planning.
The intellectual property partnerships required extensive relationship building with the major studios, establishing trust and demonstrating value propositions that extended beyond traditional licensing arrangements through a barter-based partnership model. VisitBritain's approach centred on offering promotional value through £8 million paid media investment across five priority markets (USA, France, Germany, Australia, GCC) rather than direct financial compensation, creating mutually beneficial arrangements that provided studios with additional reach whilst securing content rights for destination marketing. This paid marketing activation is expected to achieve a 1:12 return on investment. With screen tourism a strategic priority, additional distribution across all 21 international markets VisitBritain has a presence in, through organic activations, has created additional exposure.
A dedicated film tourism section on VisitBritain’s website serves as the hub of the campaign, sharing detailed itinerary suggestions. Alongside the exposure and reach driven by the hero video and media activation, conversion was centred on an interactive mapping platform whereby travellers could filter content by entertainment genre, such as period drama, romantic comedy, action adventure and fantasy, to discover relevant destinations and experiences. This approach addressed the fundamental challenge of enabling personalised discovery while maintaining content authority. The platform successfully transformed destination information around film-specific screen tourism experiences into contextualised, interest-specific recommendations that feel both personally relevant and professionally curated.
Starring Great Britain's influencer strategy demonstrated an advanced understanding of global content distribution and audience engagement dynamics. Rather than treating influencer partnerships as an additional promotional activity, VisitBritain integrated content creators into the campaign's launch. Bringing 16 influencers from 11 markets to Britain for four genre-themed content creation trips and coordinating these content releases to coincide with campaign launch, created simultaneous amplification across international markets.
By holding influencer content back until campaign launch, VisitBritain created a concentrated awareness period that maximised the compound effect of coordinated messaging across multiple channels. This coordinated approach generated 17.2 million more impressions than projected, with engagement rates of 8% significantly exceeding industry benchmarks of 3-4%. The success stemmed from treating influencers as content partners, enabling authentic storytelling that resonated with their established audiences while serving campaign objectives.
Domestic industry partnerships required equally elaborate coordination across devolved tourism boards in Scotland, Wales, England and London as well as regional DMOs. This approach provides clear value propositions for each region whilst maintaining overall campaign coherence and impact to balance national campaign objectives with regional strategic priorities. To achieve this, VisitBritain developed comprehensive support frameworks, including webinars, content creation guidelines, co-marketing opportunities and the creation of bookable experiences, enabling alignment of local initiatives with national campaign messaging. This approach transformed the campaign from a centralised marketing initiative into a distributed network which amplified messaging while maintaining strategic coherence. This inclusive approach addressed a critical scalability challenge by ensuring that campaign benefits created a broader regional economic impact.
Exemplifying this approach to regional buy-in for the campaign, Liverpool City Region's "Ultimate Setting" campaign demonstrated how established film destinations can leverage national momentum to amplify existing assets, whilst Marketing Manchester's film and television map illustrated tactical approaches to content aggregation and visitor guidance. Most significantly, North York Moors' development of new bookable products revealed how destinations could transform campaign inspiration into tangible revenue-generating opportunities that integrated directly with international trade programmes. These varied implementations reflected VisitBritain's understanding that effective collaboration requires addressing different organisational maturity levels and strategic priorities. This adaptive approach ensured campaign participation remained strategically relevant across diverse destination contexts whilst maintaining consistent core messaging about Britain's screen heritage.
The temporal dimension of the collaboration strategy addressed persistent industry feedback regarding campaign longevity. Previous marketing initiatives followed annual campaign cycles that provided insufficient time for industry partners to develop substantial content or product investments. By providing certainty, "Starring Great Britain" enabled regional DMOs to approach collaboration as a strategic development opportunity rather than tactical promotional participation. This framework acknowledged that transformative destination marketing requires sustained commitment periods that align with tourism product development cycles and international market development timelines.
The integration with international trade programmes, particularly the partnership with Expedia Group on the "Got the Shot" campaign, revealed how domestic industry collaboration extends into global distribution networks. This sub-campaign, featuring BAFTA award-winning direction and comedic presenters, created content specifically designed for Scotland, Wales and North East England that integrated directly with international booking platforms. Such an approach highlights how collaboration frameworks can bridge the gap between destination marketing and distribution, creating direct pathways from campaign engagement to revenue generation.
Global Marketing Deputy Director
VisitBritain
Created for destinations around the world, this programme will provide the insight to help you become a sustainability leader within your organisation.
Designed to teach you how to master must-have tools and acquire essential skills to succeed in managing your destination or organisation, be ready to challenge all of your assumptions.
Designed to teach you how to master must-have tools and acquire essential skills to succeed in managing your destination or organisation, be ready to challenge all of your assumptions.
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