Such shows as Downton Abbey, Love Island UK, Bridgerton, Top Boy, and Ted Lasso have shaped the average American’s views about Britain.

We challenged traditional American stereotypes of Britain to look beyond Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. Britain is a nation with a living history, breathtaking coastal views, and a rich, diverse culture. From the castles of Caernarfon to Brummie balti – there is so much for US Travellers to learn more about Britain!

Most Travel Destination competitors focus on Places and Experiences in their campaign messaging to encourage Consideration. We had the opportunity to differentiate ourselves by focusing on People, Culture, & Language in channels dialing up viral, Social chatter to develop a more personal connection and challenge clichéd perceptions.

Britain is an attractive destination for English-speaking US tourists for many reasons: its storied past, iconic sights, cheeky charm, and of course – the lack of a language barrier. English speakers on both sides of the pond should be able to navigate each other’s countries seamlessly, right? Not necessarily, as it turns out! Each area of Britain has distinctive accents and slang. Britain’s audio identity is defined by these regional pronunciations and quirky sayings.

British accents are particularly beloved by Americans, with 69% finding them attractive, sexy, and smart! These accents play a significant role in creating a sense of welcome and connection for US Travellers.

In terms of learning and changing perceptions, statistics show that 65% of people are visual learners, 30% are auditory learners, and 5% are kinesthetic learners.

Fake (Br)it Till You Make It educated US Travellers about British linguistic and cultural differences. A web game was created using AI-powered voice recognition to challenge players to imitate regional dialects of Britain and rate their success – a world first!

Participants shared their results on Social media and challenged friends using #FakeBritChallenge. They could go to VisitBritain.com to learn more about each region and make bookings to experience IRL.

The Fake(Br)it game redefined Britain’s audio identity since Newcastle just sounds different than Glasgow!

We engaged audiences through a multi-pronged strategy:

• Identified key influencers to enhance credibility and encourage user engagement through gameplay to challenge stereotypes visually

• Partnered with popular publishers to distribute reminders and custom interactive content critical in bringing the experience to life, spurring 1:1 engagement to satisfy kinesthetic learners

• Pinpointed premium, contextually relevant content environments, and targeted users during their leisure time to audibly

This campaign ran across February-May 2023:

Phase 1: Established reach within US Travellers’ passion content and go-to sources via teaser banners/videos in Programmatic & Social driving Awareness of Britain as a travel destination

Phase 2: Drove Fake(Br)it gameplay via:

• Influencers: Creators produced Instagram and TikTok content encouraging their followers to join the #FakeBritChallenge. This was shared organically and amplified via Owned & Paid Social

• Branded content: Talk British to Me videos featuring the antics of two comedians trying their best British accents & deciphering slang were distributed across Social & Digital networks; and bolstered with high-impact, immersive units and videos

• Audio: Beloved podcast hosts joined the #FakeBritChallenge & issued challenges to listeners

• CTV & Mobile: Custom interactive video using Publisher’s speech recognition AI prompted viewers to play a modified game within the unit, with a CTA directing users to the full Fake(Br)it game for more gameplay

Great results for Great Britain as the campaign contributed to:

• Total US Activity ROI of 23:1

• +25% increased visits by Americans to Britain across Q3 2023 vs Q1/2

We delivered an overall reach of 540.2MM+ impressions across Paid (326MM, +41%), Earned (213.1MM) & Owned (1.1MM+)!

• Secured 396 pieces of Earned media

• 111MM video views (+86%)

#FakeBritChallenge was incredibly engaging & highly effective in changing perceptions of Britain & driving Consideration

• 30.8K+ Gameplays of Fake (Br)it game with high Engagement rates (37%) and 9min 27sec avg time spent in gameplay

• Custom Interactive video on CTV drove 14.8x average interactions (+772%) with viewers spending 57sec avg time spent (+21%)

• Increased VisitBritain site traffic with 33K+ campaign landing page visits on website Destination Content

• Positive lifts in Travel Intent with 30% more likely to visit