Brand USA expands Great Outdoors campaign through BBC’s global channels
Video vignettes use personal perceptions to evoke splendor, diversity across U.S. landscape
WASHINGTON, DC – Viewers around the globe are getting access to a new BBC Worldwide series of two-minute video vignettes – collectively called “The USA Through The Great Outdoors.” Produced in partnership with Brand USA, the destination-marketing organization for the United States, the videos feature inspiring imagery of U.S. destinations known for their outdoor appeal with voiceovers by local residents who share personal associations and experiences in those places.
The videos will be translated into seven languages: French, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, German and Chinese. BBC plans to broadcast them through regional outlets into Europe, Asia Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and South Africa.
“Each video presents a striking visual depiction of locations along the American landscape,” said Chris Thompson, Brand USA’s president and CEO. “The places have the star-power in these messages, while the voiceovers – inserted sparingly – are there to complement the visual impact.”
Brand USA plans to broadcast the translated videos this spring through global social-media outreach, using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The videos will reside on Brand USA’s online hub for outdoors-related content, “The United States of Great Outdoors” – a consumer website that provides trip ideas, stories, photos and information about Great Outdoors destinations, including the national parks, in six regional modules that span the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. (A seventh region focuses on U.S. territories.) Digital ads on BBC websites are expected to drive visitors to Brand USA’s “The United States of Great Outdoors” site, http://outdoors.visittheusa.com.
This current series of video vignettes spotlights 12 destinations in 11 states. The local artistic and environmental storytellers who convey their perceptions of these locations include:
- Scarlet Colley, wildlife conservationist (South Padre Island, Texas)
- Maria Ponzi, winemaker (Willamette Valley, Oregon)
- Bee Walker, photographer (Hudson Valley, New York)
- Alice Chiang, architect (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire)
- Max Lowe, photographer (Bozeman, Montana)
- Bob White, painter (St. Croix, Minnesota
- Tab Benoit, musician (Wetlands, Louisiana)
- Keanu Asing, professional surfer (Oahu, Hawaii)
- Stan Estes, horse whisperer (Cummings, Georgia)
- Andy Cochrane and Roberto Gutierrez, kayakers (San Francisco, California)
- Ed Lewis, entrepreneur (Encinitas, California)
- Ed Mell, artist (Sedona, Arizona)
“The USA Through The Great Outdoors” series follows a similar format used in 2015 for the “America Through Film” partnership with BBC Advertising. In that award-winning series, various movie directors spoke on camera about their experiences and perspectives of destinations that are meaningful to them – their home states or locations used as influential backdrops, even “characters,” in movies they directed.
This video vignettes are part of Brand USA’s comprehensive campaign to promote America’s Great Outdoors to international travelers. It precedes a worldwide release February 12 of a 3D giant-screen documentary, “National Parks Adventure.”
Brand USA produced the film (narrated by Robert Redford) with independent filmmaker MacGillivray Freeman Films as a tribute to this year’s centennial anniversary of the National Park Service.
###
About Brand USA
Brand USA is the nation’s destination marketing organization, dedicated to attracting legitimate international inbound travel to strengthen the U.S. economy, increase exports, create quality jobs, and promote community prosperity. By running data-driven campaigns and unifying messaging across industry and government, Brand USA positions the United States as a top global destination while providing current visa and entry information.
Since 2012 Brand USA, in collaboration with travel industry partners, has been responsible for attracting an additional 10.3 million visitors who spent nearly $35 billion in the United States, generating $76 billion in economic output, and sustaining nearly 40,000 jobs per year. Without any cost to taxpayers, these efforts have generated $10 billion in tax receipts and returned $20 to the U.S. economy for every dollar spent.