Saddled with a perception that it was rural and ‘flat cap’, the Yorkshire Tourist Board has undertaken a rebrand to lure tourists, attract investment and support the region’s businesses. Max Hotopf reports:

All too often, a tourist board’s brand is little more than a gentle Smörgåsbord of regional offerings. B&B, outdoor attractions, a bit of culture, some cuisine, some pretty photography – leaving you with no compelling regional identity. How to change that? How to produce an image capable of actually pulling in new punters, rather than passively setting out a few options for them? And how can it position itself.

That was the challenge faced by the Yorkshire Tourist Board and it was not an easy one. As marketing director Joanna Royle puts it: “Yorkshire has a slightly rural image – Heartbeat, Last of the ummer Wine, a bit flat cap if you like. We didn’t want to turn our back on that. We appeal to a lot of older couples, but the young are more likely to go to Scotland, the South West or just jump on a plane. We needed to find a way of challenging this perception of Yorkshire, without alienating the older consumers.”

A series of focus groups held in 2008 also showed the strength of Yorkshire – there was a high level of trust in the friendliness of the county. “Again and again, focus groups showed us that it was the people of Yorkshire who were seen as unique.”

In February 2009, the decision was taken to go for a new image – to move away from the rather local government feel of a ‘tourist board’. This was linked to the appointment last year of Gary Verity as the new CEO. Highly ambitious, the former group managing director of Prontaprint and Kall Kwik and a former managing director of Johnsons Cleaners UK, Verity was eager for results. Verity and Royle wanted an identity which would stand out and which could also be used as a basis for powerful marketing campaigns.

Brand has become more important as tourism budgets have exploded in recent years. Royle says, “A decade ago our annual marketing budget would have been a couple of hundred thousand a year, a few ears ago £1-2 million a year. In 2009 it’s £6 million with a mandate to spend £30 million over the next three years.”

That mandate comes with tough targets. Half the money has to be raised from the private sector and the budget is contingent on hitting the target of increasing tourism, which it is claimed brought £6.8 billion to Yorkshire last year, by 5% a year. It is an increasingly competitive world in which local development  agencies pump more and more taxpayers’ dosh into attracting visitors.

Elmwood, a Leeds-based image consultancy, was paid £15,000 to come up with a new image and suggested re-branding the Yorkshire Tourist Board as Welcome to Yorkshire. Simultaneously, McCann Erickson was appointed as the main advertising agency and suggested pushing the letter Y, which makes Yorkshire unique. As McCann Erickson’s Carol Smith says: “The challenge was to come up with a core brand idea which can translate across all the different categories, which has longevity, impact and is unique. The Y was kind of winking at us.” The two ideas come together in the new logo.

For Royle, the challenge was “to distil the image into a selling point – and we decided on the basic dea of ‘you can do more in Yorkshire’. There are not very many places where you can have such a wealth of experiences: dales, cities, York heritage, Leeds with its nightlife.” The new image is very flexible – “Y come to Yorkshire?”

Royle feels the new name delivers on a number of levels. “Most other tourist boards have re-branded as ‘Visit X’ so ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ stood out. It fits what we want – to be warm, confident, welcoming and the USP of friendliness was in the name. It is an invitation which works well. Brand is all about promise.”
She adds: “Rebranding can so easily become navel gazing. I kept returning to the requirement that the image be a basis for effective campaigns and this image delivers that as well.”

Mind you, navel gazing was certainly not on the agenda. The time line was eye-wateringly tight. McCann and Elmwood were appointed in early February with the goal of having a completely new identity, a new website and new TV advertising in place within eight weeks.

It is hard to see quite what drove things at quite this speed. Royle talks vaguely of funding requirements, but it is hard to not wonder whether Verity wasn’t behind the tempo. In fairness, Smith enthuses about the pleasure of working for “a deeply ambitious driven client” – something she says is surprisingly rare.

Both Royle and Smith say the speed has been good in a way – leading to total immersion. But, independently of each other, they both say it has aged them. Asked if she was working 12-hour days,  Royle laughs hollowly and says: “No, much longer. We were really burning the midnight oil.”

The new website and TV advert are certainly different. The website home page has a sort of model train set Y with prompts for the main categories – a model city for city life at the top of one branch of the Y, while sheep, perched on moorland at the top of the other branch, prompt outdoors. At the base, a family nestle on a beach. It has an engaging, slightly Wallace & Gromit humour, designed to appeal to young and old.

The TV advertisement is much more obviously aimed at the 25-35 couples market. Branded “A long weekend in Yorkshire isn’t long enough” it features a music track which sounds like a steel band on speed
as a couple spend a manic three days buying shoes, windsurfing, going to the gee-gees, clubbing and, curiously, early on Sunday morning, throwing athletic cartwheels at a funfair.

The whole thing has a slickness, a density of image and an originality which belies the notion that it was all done in eight weeks. Royle is now planning campaigns each aimed at specific categories – culture, outdoor, heritage, etc. It will be interesting to see if that 5% target can be reached in these recessionary times.