New creative and media channels designated—promoting the value found in the proximity of destinations and experiences in the United States

BERLIN, Germany (March 11, 2016)—Brand USA, the destination-marketing organization for the United States, is launching a new, multi-dimensional digital campaign in Germany beginning March 14, 2016.  The campaign, which prominently features the message of “All within your reach,” promotes the United States as a premier travel destination with visual triggers and messaging, as well as calls to action designed to create a sense of urgency and inspire travelers to choose the USA for their next trip.

The campaign runs through September and includes online video and digital display advertising, which drives to the new campaign landing page, as well as nine newly created destination landing pages. The landing pages provide inspirational content from Germany to major U.S. gateways and offer travelers at least six experience-based itineraries to complement their visit within a five-hour radius of the featured city or gateway. To further support the message of “All within your reach," Brand USA will also launch a complementary social-media campaign in April.

 “The United States offers travelers some of the most diverse travel experiences of any destination in the world,” said Christopher L. Thompson, president and CEO of Brand USA.  “Through this new campaign, we are promoting iconic and surprising destinations and attractions visitors can experience to, through, and beyond the gateways—all within their reach.”  

The campaign emphasizes the proximity and interconnectedness of travel experiences in the USA. Though the United States is vast in size, travelers can visit a number of unique destinations and attractions during a single trip. It's a matter of planning trips beyond customary gateway locations, and Brand USA is providing travelers the information and the tools to do just that.

A third element in the German consumer campaign is a quiz created by Expedia Media Solutions for Brand USA, promoting the U.S. National Parks in conjunction with Brand USA's new film, "Wild America – Die schönsten Nationalparks," which began showing in IMAX® theaters and other giant-screen format cinemas in February. Brand USA and Expedia will jointly run the quiz for four weeks on their respective social-media channels.

“Wild America – Die schönsten Nationalparks,” created and distributed by award-winning filmmaker MacGillivray Freeman Films for Brand USA, is sponsored by Expedia, Inc. and Subaru of America and narrated by Academy Award® winner Robert Redford.  It will play in theaters in over 30 states and 12 countries over the next year and a half.

 The film opened last week in Germany at the Auto and Technik Museum in Sinsheim, and will open at the Cinecitta in Nuremberg on March 10. It premiered in Lucerne, Switzerland at the Swiss Transport Museum on March 1.

The film commemorates the centennial of the National Park Service, which turns 100 on August 25, 2016 (the date President Woodrow Wilson signed the act establishing a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department, as well as those to be established).

More than 30 U.S. national parks were filmed during the production of the film, including Yellowstone, Yosemite, Arches and Glacier national parks – all filmed during 2015. It depicts the travels of a world-class mountaineer, an adventure photographer and an artist as they explore the parks.

“The film is an integral part of Brand USA's marketing efforts and we expect it will resonate with German travelers' love for the great outdoors and the U.S. national parks, monuments, seashores, lakeshores, recreations areas and historic sites,” said Anne Madison, chief strategy and communications officer for Brand USA.  “The film highlights the United States' national parks and their breath-taking, diverse and majestic landscapes, and the immersive nature of the IMAX® and giant-screen platform serves as the perfect canvas to showcase their beauty and wonder,” she said.

2016 MegaFam

From September 15-21, 2016, Brand USA, in partnership with Lufthansa and United Airlines, will host its third annual MegaFam for 80 travel agents from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. German agents will travel in groups of 10 along one of eight simultaneous familiarization (FAM) trips to a variety of U.S. destinations.

Travel to the USA from Germany up 13.5%

The USA is the most popular long-haul destination for German travelers, and visitation from Germany to the United States continues to grow. During 2014, the number of Germans who visited the United States topped 2 million for the first time, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), which is part of the International Trade Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce.  It was the fifth-straight year of annual increases in German arrivals. The NTTO also notes Germany is the fifth-largest source market for overseas travel to the United States and the top international market on continental Europe.

Year to date June 2015, visitation to the USA from Germany reached 1.025 million, a 13.5% increase compared to the same period in 2014.  The increase is more than triple the average increase in visitation of all international markets to the United States for the first six months of 2015, which was up 3.9% compared to the prior-year period. 

“Brand USA has had an active marketing presence in Germany since 2012 when we established one of our first international representation firms in Germany to help us reach travelers through the travel trade in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.  Today, we are running our complete range of marketing in Germany, comprised of robust consumer campaigns, cooperative marketing programs platforms, and travel-trade outreach,” Madison said.

Collaboration with Visit USA Committee Germany and the U.S. Commercial Service in Germany

Brand USA also works in collaboration with Visit USA Committee Germany and the U.S. Commercial Service in Germany on programs and initiatives with the travel trade by sponsoring the Visit USA Bowling Workshops in May, the Trade Roadshow in September, and the Halloween Travel Agent Event in October. These programs allow us to collectively reach nearly 800 influential travel agents to promote travel to the United States.  In addition, Brand USA is able to promote the USA to more than 400,000 consumers at Germany's major tourism shows.  “The Visit USA Committee and the U.S. Commercial Service in market provide keen insights and networking in Germany, and our close cooperation with these teams enables us to significantly and effectively amplify our activities with the travel trade and extend our consumer reach,” said Madison.

ITB Berlin

Brand USA underscores its marketing efforts in Germany, and neighboring Austria and Switzerland, by participating each year at ITB Berlin, one of the world's largest tradeshows for international travel and tourism. The show runs March 9-13, 2016.

“By hosting a USA Pavilion in Berlin, we and our industry partners can generate significant exposure in Germany and the surrounding markets,” said Thompson. “We are set to have extensive meetings with members of the travel trade and representatives of in-market media outlets, as we show why the United States is the premier travel destination in the global marketplace.”

The Brand USA pavilion at ITB Berlin, which includes a multi-level exhibition stand, features 225 U.S. tourism-industry exhibitors – 17 percent more than last year.  An interactive photo booth, located at the USA stand, offers guests the opportunity to be featured in one of several backdrops featuring U.S. National Parks in an animated sequence of images.  The images can be shared through the social media channels of guests' choice.

ITB Berlin fast facts

Now in its 50th year, ITB Berlin brings together 10,000 exhibitors from 185 countries with approximately 175,000 visitors, including 115,000 travel-industry visitors. Among them will be 850 pre-qualified, high-volume travel buyers.

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About Brand USA

Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States, was established by the Travel Promotion Act as the nation's first public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier travel destination and to communicate U.S. entry/exit policies and procedures to worldwide travelers. The organization's mission is to increase international visitation to the USA in order to fuel the U.S. economy and enhance the image of the United States worldwide. Formed as the Corporation for Travel Promotion in 2010, the public-private entity began operations in May 2011 and does business as Brand USA. According to studies by Oxford Economics, over the past two years Brand USA's marketing initiatives have helped welcome more than 2 million incremental visitors to the USA, benefiting the U.S. economy with nearly $15 billion in total economic impact, which has supported, on average, 50,000 incremental jobs a year.

For industry or partner information about Brand USA, visit www.TheBrandUSA.com. For information about exceptional and unexpected travel experiences in the United States, please visit Brand USA's consumer website VisitTheUSA.com (global) or VisitTheUSA.de in Germany.