Challenge

The creation of Brand Scotland saw four key framework partners come together to drive Scottish interests as a collective, instead of pursuing individual goals. The challenge was to kickstart a movement, deliver economic impact and drive people to work, study, visit and invest in Scotland. 

All this was to be done with a relatively small budget, meaning we had to be smart and tactical to drive the reach and engagement that would translate into economic gains for Scotland.

Solution 

Starting a movement is tough, especially when you want to reach a digital-first audience that is less likely to watch TV. 

We wanted to use media to generate scale and advocacy across three key markets; London, New York and San Francisco; so we turned to the second largest website in the world. Launching our hero video on YouTube we drove 500,000 views in the first 24 hours; making it feel like a TV campaign for a digital audience!

This was supported by 17 videos focused on the people of Scotland. Using geographic and attitudinal insights, we were able to target the right people, with the right message at the right time.

Result 

The Scotland is Now campaign smashed its targets of increased reach, engagement, traffic, referrals and advocacy.

The #ScotlandisNow launch reached 32m people in its first five months through paid media, paid promotion and earned reach gaining 120m views of campaign videos.

Scotland.org saw 141% uplift in traffic from London and 449% uplift from San Francisco and New York, with increased referrals to all framework partners… and the hashtag? There was a massive 413k tweets using #ScotlandIsNow, all in the first six months.

Scotland is Now has sparked a movement that represents the values of Scotland.