A campaign to generate a buzz for Dundee and the opening of V&A Dundee has received an international accolade.
The campaign activity to showcase the city and its new museum picked up a Platinum award at the HSMAI Adrian Awards on Tuesday (21 January) at the New York Marriott Marquis. Now in their 63rd year, the prestigious Adrian Awards recognise creativity and innovation in advertising, digital marketing and public relations.
Submitted by VisitScotland, the award entry was entitled "The Comeback Kid: Dundee - How Scotland's Fourth Largest City Became The King of Cool" and highlighted the increase in visitors to the city as well as key placements in target US media including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Vogue.
There were more than 1,100 entries for this year’s awards with all submissions eligible to win at the Gold, Silver and Bronze levels. Gold winning entries which were judged to be exceptional received Platinum status.
The award comes after independent research revealed V&A Dundee had a £75 million economic impact across Scotland in its first year. The study also found the museum had a £21 million impact on Dundee and created an estimated 370 new jobs in Dundee.
Opening in September 2018, V&A Dundee has shone a global spotlight on Dundee as a city of design, creativity and heritage. It welcomed over 833,000 visitors in its first year and has won a host of awards including a place on TIME Magazine’s list of ‘2019’s Greatest Places’.
From the initial conception to the opening of the museum, the museum represents over a decade of innovation, passion and dedication from its founding partners, funders and Dundee’s tourism industry. VisitScotland worked with key partners to ensure the city and country maximised the benefits brought by the new attraction.
VisitScotland’s marketing activity targets segments of key markets across the world to showcase Scotland’s visitor offering and give the country a renowned presence in the global marketplace to ensure the benefits of tourism are felt across the nation.
Caroline Warburton, VisitScotland Regional Leadership Director, said: “I’m delighted to see the work to showcase Dundee and V&A Dundee to the world has been recognised at the HSMAI Adrian Awards. The passion, innovation and hard work of Scotland’s tourism industry has been integral to the city and the attraction’s phenomenal success.
“At VisitScotland everything we do is about showcasing a destination and visitor experience worth talking about through innovative marketing, partnerships and events to inspire visitors to spend more time and money across the country.”
Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee, said: “To receive such a prestigious award is a great recognition of the global impact V&A Dundee has already had, in creating a major new international cultural centre and in promoting Dundee and Scotland as world-class tourism destinations.”
Councillor John Alexander, leader of Dundee City Council, said: “This award is fantastic recognition of all the work which has been done by ‘team Dundee’ to put the city in the international spotlight.
“People from around the world are discovering what we locals know – that Dundee is a really cool place to live, work, play and visit.
“The buzz that has been created has helped bring visitors in record numbers, contributing millions of pounds to the local economy and supporting thousands of jobs.
“We’ll continue to shout about our city and encourage people to not only visit but stay for a while and discover the culture, adventure, nightlife and so much more that Dundee has to offer.”
To learn more about the HSMAI Adrian Awards go to https://adrianawards.hsmai.org/
To find out more about Dundee and V&A Dundee go to www.visitscotland.com/destinationsmaps/dundee/
For more information on VisitScotland and its work to grow tourism sustainably across Scotland, go to www.visitscotland.org