Coverage in the national press, a positive collaboration with a content creator, and a 20% increase in visitors on the landing page helped make our Christmas in Lincoln campaign a big success.
One of the most magical times to visit the city of Lincoln is at Christmas. City of Lincoln Council worked hard to create a new programme aimed at extending the festive season, including new events, lights, and more.
Our role was to create and deliver a festive Visit Lincoln marketing campaign to promote the city as a visitor destination for festive breaks and encouraging weekend stays.
Visit Lincoln, City of Lincoln Council, and Lincoln BIG combined budgets for their second Christmas campaign. Their roles were all crucial in delivering a positive festive campaign.
The marketing activity included inspirational content and visitor itineraries on VisitLincoln.com, as well as individual event listings. This promoted experiences like the city council’s Lincoln Ice Adventure, Lincoln BIG’s Nutcracker Christmas Trail, and Thor’s Tipi Bar.
Credit: City of Lincoln Council
There were 24,000 website visitors to the Christmas in Lincoln landing page from November to December – a 20% increase from 2023.
We also worked with content creator Candace Salters, who described Lincoln as an “unexpected Christmas gem”. Destination Lincolnshire worked with the American content creator to arrange a festive press trip, providing a jam-packed itinerary for spending time in Lincoln during the winter.
Candace introduced Lincoln to tens of thousands of potential international visitors, with her reel gaining 28,000 views within the first 48 hours of being posted. The views continued to rise, and across all social media soared to over 78,000.
We also collaborated with local hoteliers and accommodation providers for a festive photoshoot, as well as doing digital advertising and press outreach.
With digital advertising we gained 137,000 views across Christmas in Lincoln social media ads. We also distributed 20,000 copies of our Visit Lincoln’s Autumn/Winter 2024 Guide nationally.
We worked with one of our industry partners - East Midlands Railway - to arrange a pop-up at Sheffield train station. We also booked out of home advertising using our Christmas in Lincoln branding across multiple stations.
Our Marketing Campaigns & Communications Manager Karla Odlin, and PR & Marketing Executive Arianne Davey, handed out flyers for the festive events, and Visit Lincoln guides, at a Christmas in Lincoln pop-up at Sheffield Station arranged by East Midlands Railway.
We also did out of home advertising across EMR and LNER stations, including Kings Cross, Derby, Birmingham, Coventry, and Sheffield, which reached 5.4 million people. We also provided content for the Lincs Kids website.
A press release and inspirational itinerary for spending a festive weekend in Lincoln gained national press coverage in The Times and The Sun, as well as on BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
Marketing Campaigns & Communications Manager Karla Odlin, and PR & Marketing Executive Arianne Davey, said: “This multi-channel campaign involved working with both local bloggers and an influencer from outside the area.
‘By partnering with local businesses, we created an itinerary for an overnight stay in Lincoln during the festive season, which Candace shared across social media to inspire overnight visits and short breaks in the city.
“We want to extend our gratitude to all our partners involved in the Christmas in Lincoln campaign, including Doubletree by Hilton Lincoln for supporting Candace’s overnight stay and our festive photoshoot, and East Midlands Railway for backing the pop-up at Sheffield Station. Through their support, we were able to distribute Visit Lincoln guides and gain free advertising across several of their stations and platforms.
“Our Christmas in Lincoln campaign toolkit is designed to promote consistent messaging about the city and the campaign, and it's fantastic to see it being used by a variety of partners, local businesses, and bloggers.”
Credit: City of Lincoln Council
Claire McDowall, Events Tourism and Culture Manager at City of Lincoln Council, said: “It was great to work with Destination Lincolnshire to deliver a marketing campaign to highlight and promote the wonderful Christmas offer in Lincoln in the run up and over the festive season.
“Christmas is one of the most magical times to visit Lincoln to enjoy a city break with loved ones. Lincoln’s heritage offer, combined with its modern shopping in our unique independent shops, nestled in cobbled streets under the glow of our Christmas Lights, make it the perfect Christmas destination and we wanted to make sure potential visitors were aware of just what Lincoln has to offer!
“Working in partnership with Visit Lincoln to create a Christmas campaign gave a great opportunity to highlight Lincoln to a wide range of visitors from far and wide!
“The City of Lincoln Council was proud to again deliver Lincoln Christmas Illuminations alongside Lincoln BIG and to see the return of Lincoln Ice Adventure.
“It was great that all partners could work closely with the team at Destination Lincolnshire to deliver campaign work to support the promotion of these seasonal treats in our beautiful city.
“It was great to see the impact that working with travel influencer Candace Salters had on bringing new audiences' awareness of the beauty of Lincoln at Christmas.
“It was also great to work with the team on a pop up event at Sheffield Train station to gauge interest and raise awareness of our Christmas events and seasonal offer with commuters and leisure travellers. It was great to see so many visitors enjoy Lincoln at Christmas.”