Due to the increasing success and agent interest, Brand USA is expanding its MegaFam platform. The UK MegaFam is guaranteed to add an additional seven spots making it the first time a MegaFam will host over 100 agents on its multi-itinerary tours.
NEW ORLEANS – Brand USA, the destination-marketing organization for the United States, is expanding its large-scale, multi-itinerary familiarization tours that allow international travel agents to experience a wide range of travel in the United States.
As the MegaFam platform continues to grow, Brand USA will launch several new MegaFam initiatives for fiscal year 2017, including the:
– First fly and drive MegaFam, partnering with Air Canada
– First MegaFam with Mexico, partnering with AeroMexico
– First MegaFam by motor coach with Germany with support through Alamo and El Monte RV
– First MegaFam with China
Additionally, Brand USA will continue the successful MegaFams from the UK & Ireland, Australia & New Zealand and Germany.
In May, the fourth annual MegaFam with agents from the United Kingdom and Ireland took place in partnership with American Airlines and British Airways. Each year, both the number of agents who apply to be part of the MegaFam and flights logged has increased. During the three-month entry period, over 930 agents registered their international flight bookings from the UK and Ireland to the USA, up by 87% from the previous year and exceeding the target set.
The substantial rise in this year's MegaFam entries is a reflection of the direct impact that Brand USA's marketing and partnership efforts with American Airlines and British Airways have made on consumer demand in the market. The increase in agent bookings comes from the reignited passion that holidaymakers in the UK and Ireland have for the USA, as well as the agents who are selling it.
"Our MegaFam program – a first for the U.S. travel industry – is one of the most effective ways to promote travel across the USA," said Chris Thompson, Brand USA's President and CEO. "Each tour itinerary features a combination of travel experiences showcasing how everything from urban excitement to the great outdoors is all within your reach."
Due to the increasing success and agent interest, Brand USA is expanding its MegaFam platform. The UK MegaFam is guaranteed to add an additional seven spots making it the first time a MegaFam will host over 100 agents on its multi-itinerary tours.
"MegaFams provide partners of all sizes opportunities to showcase their destinations and travel-related services or products in ways that would not be feasible on their own," Thompson said. "We're looking forward to bringing agents from even more of our source markets to destinations to, through, and beyond our gateways."
This year, was also the fourth annual Australia and New Zealand MegaFam. For the first time, Brand USA partnered with Air New Zealand and highlighted the new airline route between Auckland, New Zealand and Houston, Texas. This particular MegaFam also featured Brand USA's first social-media competition during a MegaFam. Agents had unlimited Internet access, allowing them to convey their impressions and photos of their travel experiences with friends and online followers.
In September, Brand USA will host its third annual MegaFam with agents from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Brand USA's airline partners are Lufthansa, and for the first time in connection with this event, United Airlines.
Since the MegaFam program began in 2013, Brand USA has hosted more than 650 travel agents from five countries and will have reached all 50 states and the District of Columbia by the end of this year.
International agents qualify for invitations to Brand USA MegaFams by completing designated modules of Brand USA's online-training package, the USA Discovery Program. They also compete with each other through sales production.
Brand USA's international marketing initiatives yield $3 billion boost for U.S. economy
Brand USA generated more than 3 million incremental visitors from around the globe during the past three years, according to a study recently released by Oxford Economics, an independent research firm based in Oxford, England.
Those international visitors accounted for $9.5 billion in incremental spending, which injected more than $21 billion into the U.S. economy. It also produced nearly $900 million in federal, state, and local taxes, and supported, on average, 50,000 incremental jobs each year.
"Everything we have accomplished has hinged on the steady support of our ever-expanding partner network and a globally coordinated marketing program that brings together our collective efforts," said Christopher L. Thompson, Brand USA's president and CEO.
A driving force of Brand USA's marketing efforts, Thompson said, is the goal of welcoming 100 million international visitors to the United States in a single year by 2021. This is a target President Obama set in 2012 with the release of the National Travel and Tourism Strategy, an initiative that is helping to create more U.S. jobs through the expansion of the tourism sector. Achieving this goal will require a nearly 5% compounded annual growth rate in visitation over the next six years, which Thompson says is a growing challenge.
"In the face of a strong dollar combined with lukewarm economic recovery in our mature source markets and slowing growth in our biggest emerging markets, impactful destination marketing is more important than ever."
Thompson said visitation from countries where Brand USA actively markets is growing at a faster pace than overall visitation to the United States.
During fiscal year 2015 (FY2015), Brand USA made continued progress toward its mission of increasing international visitation and spend to the United States in order to fuel the nation's economy. Highlights include:
– Generating 1.03 million incremental visitors to the United States, who spent $3.04 billion on fare receipts with U.S. carriers and other purchases during their visit—which resulted in $6.6 billion in total sales and nearly 45,000 incremental jobs.
– Expanded the USA consumer campaign from 11 markets in FY2014 to 12 markets in FY2015 (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and the United Kingdom). In total, these markets generate more than 80% of all international visitation to the United States.
– Launched 36 integrated media flights and expanded the number of Brand USA social channels to 45 worldwide.
– Continued strong and positive social sentiment and engagement across all of Brand USA's digital channels—with 41.6 million engagements, a 4% increase from the prior year.
– Leveraged $64 million in contributed media from 45 global media partners to promote travel to the USA directly to consumers in numerous international markets.
– Significantly increased the effectiveness of our USA brand campaigns during FY2015—ranging from increases in intent to visit the USA (based on post-wave research) from 47% in Germany to 67% in China to 171% in Brazil — through a coordinated effort that improved ad recall and media efficiency.
– Kept overhead expenses to 9.19%—devoting more than 90% of Brand USA's resources toward marketing and programs to increase international visitation (based on administrative expenses of $14.5 million and total expenses of $157.7 million).
– Began production of a giant-screen film celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service – and pre-sold 1 million tickets and confirmed distribution in more than 100 cities worldwide prior to the film's release in February 2016. Of international movie-goers who have seen the film, 81% say they are much more likely or more likely to visit the USA, and 61% say they are more likely to select the USA over another destination for their next holiday.
– Launched a multi-channel culinary and great outdoors strategy featuring dynamic and expansive content hubs in five languages, including an accessible and inclusive Great Outdoors site for the visually, audio, physically, and cognitively impaired.
– Deployed numerous groundbreaking campaigns, including:
– Choose Your American Adventure with Expedia
– Great American Road Trip campaigns
– Flavors of the USA Videos with the Food Network International
– Award-winning Buzzfeed consumer campaigns
– High-impact media through Shanghai Metro and Cinema X in Seoul
– Google Lightbox
– Google maps and Instagram integration—a first for the industry
– Periscope live broadcast from Road Trip campaigns
– First-ever global Instagram relay with Helloworld and 12 key partners
– Consumer integration on BBC, STA, ESPN, Thomas Cook, and Travel Channel International
– Expanded the Brand USA travel inspiration guide to 10 languages and 17 markets with global distribution of more than 580,000 print copies.
– Increased the reach of the digital version of the Brand USA travel inspiration guide, generating nearly 48 million digital impressions through owned, earned, and paid promotions, netting almost three million page views—a 64% increase over the prior year.
– Nearly quadrupled global earned media impressions—from 648.4 million in FY2014 to 2.5 billion in FY2015, representing $210.4 million in advertising equivalency.
– Launched the Brand USA partner reporting portal on the corporate website, TheBrandUSA.com, enabling partners to gain real-time access to program results for their destination or travel brand.
– Presented at more than 100 industry events around the world.
– Honored with 28 marketing and destination excellence awards globally
– Maintained a partnership program retention rate of over 90%.
– Grew Brand USA's partnership network from 475 partners through FY2014 to 577 through FY2015 (a 21% increase).
– Generated more than $100 million in industry contributions, including cash contributions of $47 million (42% of all contributions) and in-kind contributions of $80.5 million in recognized revenue (58% of all contributions).
"Our direct-to-consumer marketing continues to expand to new markets—and is now playing globally through valuable media partnerships. Our cooperative marketing opportunities are adding value and creating all-new platforms to showcase U.S. destinations and experiences to the world. Our travel trade outreach is forging new and exciting relationships with the travel trade around the world. We are collaborating as never before with our federal partners to tell the stories of our national treasures and deliver a welcome message to the world."
Brand USA's marketing programs and initiatives are designed to increase inbound visitor travel to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five territories of the USA, as well as promote tourism to rural and urban areas equally, including areas not traditionally visited by international travelers. To accomplish this, Brand USA utilizes a combination of brand marketing, public relations, travel trade outreach, and cooperative marketing programs that provide opportunities for partners of all shapes and sizes to participate.
Support for Brand USA's operations comes from a combination of non-federal contributions from partner organizations representing destinations, travel brands and private-sector companies, and matching funds collected by the U.S. government from international visitors who travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program.
Also, Brand USA has launched a newly rebuilt and revitalized version of its corporate website, www.TheBrandUSA.com. The new website has enriched content related to global-partner programs, which better highlights Brand USA's industry activities and signature events, and provides more intuitive search and navigation pathways.
Plans for the re-building of Brand USA's consumer website (VisitTheUSA.com) are also underway. The new site, which together with its family of in-language sites serves as the official tourism web platform for the USA, is scheduled to be unveiled in the fall of 2016.
"Our new site allows us to provide better resources and reporting to our partners, share results of our overall marketing efforts, and keep the industry and others apprised of our efforts and ongoing plans to continue to increase international visitation to the United States," Thompson said. "By rebuilding our corporate website, we are better able to be responsive to our steadily growing partner network."
The new site is phasing in significant features that are beneficial for Brand USA partners and better highlights our partners, as well programs and opportunities to help them meet their business objectives. A central feature of the site is a password-protected partner reporting portal, which provides partners direct access to the results of programs in which they participate. Enhanced and expanded features of the new site and the partner reporting portal include:
– Mobile-optimized, responsive design to optimize user experience across a full spectrum of devices, including tablets and smart phones
– Direct access for the media and others to video footage and photography of U.S. destinations and experiences
– Expanded resources, including exclusive Brand USA partner program opportunities and market research
– An online speakers bureau, allowing industry and other organizations to request Brand USA speakers for their events, as well as download recent presentations and talks
– Enriched reporting that allows states and regions to evaluate the impact of their multi-tiered programs with Brand USA
– Improved speed for creation of dynamic reports
– New glossary of terms to enhance interpretation of reports
– Summary of partner-participation levels, in aggregate and for each program
– New email notification system that alerts partners to updates
Brand USA partnered with global digital agency, Insomniac Design, to integrate best practices and implement a highly visual and dynamic digital presence as a best-in-class national destination marketing organization.
Daniel McKee, Insomniac Design's CEO, said: "We fortified the website with powerful imagery, new content strategy and an immersive user experience that better supports the United States' destination marketing organization."
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
