VisitBritain

GREAT Gateway Innovation Fund 2024/25

Learn more about this fund which provides financial assistance to marketing activity in your gateway destination.

VisitBritain/The Noodles

A couple travel down an escalator at a train station

Potential purpose of the fund

The fund will provide financial assistance to UK-registered DDPs (England only), LVEPs (England only) or  Regional DMOs (only in Scotland and Wales), to deliver marketing activity in either France or Germany, and the United States.  

The fund encourages marketing innovation by focusing on a specific inbound gateway or region in Great Britain which has a direct port of passenger entry, whether an airport, a seaport or fixed rail link, from one of the three key GREAT markets referenced.

Objectives

  1. Drive innovation and collaboration via our regions and raise awareness of Britain through the lens of See Things Differently.
  2. Encourage partners to collaborate on increasing impact and growing the wider economic impact for that region.
  3. Contribute to VisitBritain’s ROI 12:1 target.

VisitBritain is looking to support either a DDP, LVEP or DMO to:

  • Promote and market your gateway/region experiences to an international consumer audience in France or Germany and the USA.
  • Deliver a fully integrated consumer facing marketing campaign (this could include third-party media buy, influencer programme etc.) between December 2024 and March 2025.
  • The applicant must inspire and rally local industry to get involved, plan and deliver this campaign on behalf of the gateway destination or region.
  • Contribute 2:1 matched funding, made up of cash and in-kind.
  • The primary commercial booking partner must be a carrier (airline, ferry or train operator) or an airport, and supporting partners can be made up of industry of your choice.
  • Provide post-campaign quantitative evaluation results from the executed marketing activities, including monetary (GBP equivalent) and volume (number) of consumer bookings generated from incremental visitors.

Budget

  • USA £300,000       
  • France £150,000  OR  Germany £150,000 
  • Applicants must secure the commitment from one (1) booking partner that sells travel to/for Britain, this should be an airline, ferry, train company or airport and a minimum of one (1) supporting partner from local industry.  
  • Matched funding requires 2:1 match. For example:
    VB £300,000  Partner £600,000 made up of a minimum of £150,000 cash to invest in the media plan and £450,000 value in kind (should be consumer facing channels, production costs which will need to be assessed)
  • Applicants can submit proposals for all markets, but will only be awarded one fund.

The fund will support:

  • Media buy with a third-party media owner (you will need access to a media agency).
  • Development and delivery of an influencer trip from relevant market.
  • B2B2C communication activities.
  • Other third-party marketing costs may be considered at the discretion of VisitBritain (i.e. third-party bespoke email development or targeted data purchase) but approval must be obtained prior to entering into spending commitments with the third party.
  • PR, social media or any agency fees, production of new content/assets etc or any other added costs should not exceed 30% of the total cash budget. 

Criteria will be based on;

  1. Market alignment
  2. Industry partnerships
  3. Marketing, creative and content plans
  4. Objectives and measurement 
  5. Resource/expertise 

Potential timings

  • Fund open for applications – w/c 30 September 2024
  • Closing date for applications - 11:59 BST 25 October 2024
  • Notification of successful applications – w/c 11 November 2024 
  • Live dates between December 2024 – March 2025

Please email  innovationgatewayfund@visitbritain.org to provide feedback or ask further questions.

Application documents

PDF

VisitBritain GREAT brand guidelines

Brand guidelines for VisitBritain GREAT campaigns

Download (3.45 MB)