Imagination: Make Britain Your Own, is a key initiative of the cross-government Great Britain Campaign to promote the UK and will deliver annual high quality magazines in both print and digital formats. The print version will be produced in English, as will the digital version – which will also appear in nine languages targeting a range of priority markets. It has widespread support from the Great Britain Campaign delivery partners: Department for Culture, Media & Sport, VisitBritain, UK Trade & Investment, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the British Council.
Says Conrad Bird, Director of the Great Britain Campaign at the Prime Minister’s Office: “The Great campaign showcases the best of what the UK has to offer to inspire people to visit, do business, invest and study in the UK. At the heart of this is an aim to encourage an international audience to think and feel differently about modern Britain. So when we issued this brief we were looking for solutions that captured an essence of surprise and delight. River’s approach did just this. They attacked the challenge with an innovative approach highlighted by inspiring content and creative execution, and some dynamic commercial thinking as well. We are looking forward to working with them to produce a world class product.”
Nicola Murphy, CEO of The River Group adds: “We are delighted and proud to be selected by VisitBritain and their partners for this product. In some ways it is the easiest job in the world – creating amazing content to promote such a wonderful product as Britain. It is an honour to be working as part of the Great Britain Campaign and to be bringing its spirit to life in both print and digital. An omni-channel approach such as this delivers on longer term engagement, trust and credibility as well as global reach and the agility of communicating in many markets and languages.”
The project will be guided editorially by Harriet Compston. Harriet is a specialist lifestyle and travel journalist with experience with Tatler, Vogue and the Evening Standard where she headed up the 1,000 Most Influential Londoners supplement. She was also the Acting Editor of Country & Town House prior to launching the 13 luxury Absolutely titles as Group Editor-in-Chief.
Harriet says: “From a shopping guide with a difference to automotive innovation, art in unexpected places and tropical gardens to an education in Shakespeare, Imagination: Make Britain Your Own celebrates the opportunities of proximity with a surprise around corner. Bringing together the best of British writers, photographers and personalities, this print and digital luxury magazine uncovers the individual, the intriguing and the unique which make Britain the perfect place for creative minds to be inspired.”
Imagination: Make Britain Your Own will be launched in September 2015.
Key facts, according to The River Group:
Format: Print and digital magazine
Print run: 300,000 units
Languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish
Frequency: Annual
Print circulation: FCO/UKTI/British Council/ VisitBritain multi-market activities, offices and events worldwide and dedicated GREAT events; partner/sponsor channels; local and international press
Digital circulation: All VisitBritain’ country and travel trade websites, links from the British Council, UKTI and FCO websites
Audience: First time and repeat international visitors, business leaders, professional A/Bs, high net worth individuals
Age: >50% 40-60 years; 30% 25-39 years
Gender: 50/50 m/f split
