US vows: "We'll take back market share"

US vows: "We'll take back market share"
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US tourism officials have warned competitors – Australia among them – that it intends to take back market share of international tourists as the country unveiled its first ever marketing campaign in Los Angeles yesterday.
Under the slogan Discover this land, like never before, Brand USA, the body created in 2010 to spearhead America’s tourism recovery, will attempt to re-engage with international travellers.
The central plank of the multi-media crusade, launched at US trade show Pow Wow, features a song written and performed by Rosanne Cash, daughter of music legend Johnny Cash.
A series of 60, 20 and 15 second television ads will be joined by extensive online, print and social media campaigns. The DiscoverAmerica website has also been relaunched.
It will launch on May 1 in the UK, Japan and Canada with an initial budget of $12.3 million for the first three months. A second wave of the campaign, which could start as early as June, will feature Brazil, South Korea and possibly Australia, Brand USA chief marketing officer Chris Perkins told Travel Today in LA.
“Australia will be included sometime in phase two. It is a highly valuable market,” he said. “That phase could start in June but that has not yet been confirmed.”
Brand USA chairman Stephen J Cloobeck admitted to gathered media that the US has suffered from declining market share.
“We will gain market share back,” he pledged. “The last decade was the decade of lost tourism for international visitation but not any more.
“Every other country should take note of what we are doing because we will set the new gold standard of marketing international tourism throughout the world.
“We will increase market share and with that comes an increase in GDP and jobs.”
He added that while other countries have prioritised travel, the US had failed to do so.
“In the 236 years since the United States of America was founded, this country has never had a nationally coordinated effort dedicated to inviting travellers to come and visit us,” he said. “That changes today.”
The campaign will focus on the diversity of the US and steer clear from the traditional images.
Asked why the campaign did not use the US flag waving red, white and blue colours in the creative, Perkins said: “We want people to see this land like never before. If you start with everything they know, or think they know, you lose them.”
Research conducted in key source markets, including Australia, revealed a consumer who “conclusively thinks they know America, that they understand it”.

“But when we dug into what they’re understanding was, they kind of don’t,” Perkins said. “so we have an obligation to show America as if never before and that’s what we’ll be doing."

To watch the new Brand USA adverts visit www.youtube.com/DiscoverAmerica

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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