ASVA Members Marketing Forum
On Monday 6th March, ASVA will be hosting our first ever online ‘Marketing Meetup’ for our members. This event, hosted on Zoom, will provide those responsible for marketing and promoting their visitor attraction, and those with an interest in marketing visitor attractions, with the opportunity to come together to both hear and share marketing insights, with a specific focus on the season ahead. We have three brilliant guest speakers joining us to discuss three unique topics – the use of influencer marketing, how data can be used to build strong relationships with your audience, and key trends in attraction marketing. The floor will then be thrown open to attendees to ask any questions of our speakers or indeed to share any insights from their own perspective.
Our first topic of the day will be influencer marketing. During last year’s ASVA AGM, Kathryn MacDonald, Senior Manager of Global Marketing at VisitScotland, delivered a presentation where she discussed VisitScotland’s marketing strategy for 2023. One of the main topics of interest for ASVA’s members coming out of this presentation was VisitScotland’s use of influencers as part of their strategy for delivering for visitor attractions. A number of members commented that they would be interested to know more about this and look at how attractions can and should be engaging with VisitScotland with influencer activity. The Marketing Meetup will do just this, providing members with the opportunity to hear from VisitScotland’s expert in the field when it comes to engaging with influencers. Amanda Thomas is a social media and influencer marketing manager with ten years’ experience across both B2B and B2C sectors. From content strategy and development through to talent management and campaign execution, she brings a great deal of knowledge and insight to her role at VisitScotland as Global Influencer Marketing Manager. Hear from her about how VisitScotland has adopted influencer marketing as part of an ‘always on’ strategy, as well as how data-led decision making and the power of social advocacy can yield impressive results and should be a core part of the marketing mix for attraction operators.
Our second topic of the meetup is one which has been consistently raised as being of interest to members – how data can be used to improve visitor engagement. Alan McGarrie is Head of Marketing for Johnnie Walker’s eight-floor flagship visitor attraction in Edinburgh, as well as Diageo’s twelve other visitor experiences within Scotland. Prior to joining Diageo, he held Director roles at Tennent’s and adidas. Alan will be joining us to discuss the importance of a “digital backbone” in modern visitor experiences. He will provide a brief overview of the consumer journey at Johnnie Walker Princes Street and how digital touchpoints are integral to this, all with the aim of creating a “connected ecosystem” in order to build valuable long-term relationships with their visitors.
Our final topic looks at marketing trends in the round in 2023. For this, we are delighted to be joined by Anthony Rawlins, CEO of digital tourism marketing tourism specialists, Navigate. Anthony founded Navigate to help tourism businesses enhance their digital marketing and attract wider audiences locally and internationally. Over 20 years, he has worked across all segments of the travel and tourism industry for leading global brands worldwide. At Navigate, Anthony ensures the company is at the leading edge of industry insights and trends and drives innovation and business strategy so they can continue to deliver best-in-class growth for their clients. In his presentation, Anthony will present to members some key findings and trends on how attraction marketing is evolving at a rate like never before in 2023.
To help facilitate the conversations following the presentations, if you have any questions that you would like to put to any of our speakers or any questions/topics you would like to debate at the Meetup, please contact us at info@asva.co.uk and we will endeavour to ensure you get the opportunity to discuss at the event.
The Meetup takes place on Monday 6th March, from 11am to 12:30pm. Please register your free place by clicking here.