The GREAT campaign promotes the very best of what Britain has to offer. The Government says that the campaign is part of a drive to promote Britain globally as a place to do business, as well as promoting education and tourism.
The Campaign demonstrates the value of our work in the creative fields, education and business and promotes these assets internationally with the aims of economic growth and to create opportunities for greater cultural relations. The GREAT campaign is one of the most ambitious and far-reaching marketing campaigns ever developed by the UK government.
The GREAT Campaign aims to support the commercial and social diplomacy efforts of the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), the foreign office and British Council overseas.
The campaign is built around the key themes that make Britain great and showcase different aspects of the UK’s character and expertise, such as: countryside, culture, heritage, creativity, entrepreneurs, innovation, sport, music, art, design and technology. GREAT promotions range from posters, press, digital and media/video advertising, iconic British landmarks, events and high profile celebrities.
The GREAT campaign was first announced by Prime Minister David Cameron in New York on the 21st of September 2011 and officially launched in February 2012. The Prime Minister David Cameron said, “In 2012 there will be only one place to be. With the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to London next summer, the greatest show on earth is about to arrive in one of the worlds greatest cities” he also went on to say “This (GREAT) campaign is simple. There are so many great things about Britain and we want to send out the message loud and proud that this is a great place to do business, to invest, to study and to visit”.
With the Royal wedding in April 2011 attracting a prodigious amount of international attention, followed by the Diamond Jubilee and then the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games boosted interest in the UK and presented a strong opportunity to promote the UK globally. Shaping international perceptions and aid in building long-term trade and tourism benefits for Britain.
This global showcasing of Britain in 2012 has done wonders for Britain’s image around the world, particularly in tourism’s new growth markets. By November 2012 it was evident that these events had a positive impact on the global perceptions of the UK. A study commissioned by VisitBritain, the GREAT campaign and its partners in January 2013 shown that 36% of respondents are more likely to visit, work or study in the UK as a result, and that Britain’s overall GREAT national brand and the UK’s cultural and sporting credentials have significantly improved since the hosting of the 2012 London Olympic games. The challenge of the GREAT campaign is to maintain this interest and encourage the millions who watched these events to come and experience Britain personally.
So far more than 190 businesses large and small have supported the campaign to date including; British Airways, BBC, Mini, McLaren and Jaguar as well as over 90 celebrities supporting the campaign including; David and Victoria Beckham, Sir Paul Smith, Sir Richard Branson, Lewis Hamilton, Andy Murry, Vivienne Westwood, Kelly Hoppen and many more.
The GREAT campaign has had over £100 million funded to the program, with additional funds invested by the Government for the graphics element of the campaign.
The GREAT campaign graphics are focused around the Great Britain tagline, which is used in a variety of iterations, such as ‘Creativity is Great Britain’ and ‘Heritage is Great Britain’ and many more.
The first series of posters released for the GREAT campaign created by Radley Yeldar shows imagery such as Wallace and Gromit and the Reading Festival with a union flag in the border and tagline. Shortly followed by posters featuring BAFTA winner Olivia Colman, Star Wars director George Lucas and the multi Oscar-nominated John Hurt.
Redlay Yeldar was appointed as the lead creative agency for the creation of the GREAT campaign and was given the on-going challenge of deepening the brand and ensuring that it worked across a wide range of executions as well as being visually appealing.
Radley Yeldar’s agency is now working with the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), the Cabinet Office, VisitBritain, UKTI, DCMS (Department for Culture Media and Sport), as well as collaborating with BAFTA, the BFI and the British Council.
Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, said: “ These posters are a fine addition to the huge range of images that we are using in the GREAT campaign in different markets around the world. Our home-grown creative industries – and the British film industry in particular – are a real success story and its great to see this highlighted in the new campaign.”
However British design critic Stephen Bayley was not impressed with the imagery, telling the times: “On this evidence, Great Britain does not do great ads. I don’t blame the agency. I blame the client. A fundamental part of British greatness is self-criticism, not docile admiration of the trite and obvious.”
The posters are simplistic and patriotic in order to be easily understood but are far too general and non-specific to invoke a much-needed deeper interest.
Creativity is one of posters and is definitely one of the things that make Britain Great, this campaign had the perfect opportunity to show the world just how creative we are by showing something current or exhibiting innovative British designs instead of using the stop motion animated Wallace and Gromit. Wallace and Gromit first launched in 1989 and have been translated in over 20 different languages, have a large following in Japan and are considered to be icons of both modern British culture and British people, though this poster design do not communicate current events or designs from within the creative fields.
The campaign now has copious amounts of posters covering a wide range of fields and variations of a particular element such as “Countryside is GREAT” it has become difficult to keep track of what exactly makes Britain great. Minimalist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe once said that ‘less is more’, the GREAT campaign would of done well to apply this simple rule in the magnitude of their simplistic posters. When things get too much or over excessive people lose interest and stop paying attention altogether.
When the GREAT campaign added shopping to the list of what makes Britain great, it became evident that the campaign is slightly impetuous and insipid. A poster displayed in a busy New York subway also had to be withdrawn from the campaign due to misspelling Brecon Beacons in Wales, calling the area the "Breacon Beacons" showing that the campaign is slightly disheveled on a whole.
Punch Maughan, director of Brecon Beacon Tourism, told The Metro “With all that money being spent, you would have thought someone would have checked the spelling”.
Whilst the GREAT campaign graphics look passable and are clearly art-directed by someone practiced, the overall strategy, imagery and writing are most definitely not 'great'.
The posters seem a little rushed in general, the compositions feel a little crowded, with an awkward type placement. The left-aligned typography looks slightly odd with the word BRITAIN aligned centrally underneath, non central or symmetrical with the image or starboard. The font size also going from large-to-very-large-to-very-small looks careless and difficult to read, the word Britain is far to small. The eye is automatically drawn to the background image although except for a few of the pictures used, you might not even know the posters were for Great Britain without close up inspection, this does not work in busy or large spaced public environments, such as in subways, where the majority of these posters are displayed globally from Toronto to Tokyo.
As for the background images used, we see historical landmarks and an array of scenic views. These images are clearly intended to be aspirational and seem to fit the bill however there is no consistency and in several of the posters a stronger image could have been used. The “music is Great” design shows a crowd at the Reading Festival and a man signalling the ‘devil horns’ gesture. A captivating and engaging image of an iconic British music concert or artist would have been easier for a wider audience to translate, other than a dully-lit silhouette of a packed crowd. The strongest of the images is unfortunately the most ironic “Shopping is Great”. New York, Paris, Malan and Dubai are more so associated with shopping than Britain. Britain is more known for vintage stores and antiques. The vast majority of clothing sold in Britain, from high end to high street, is rarely made in Britain. The image its self has something of a sexual dominating element in it. The colours are dark and strong. The contrast and spotlight effect is dramatic and accentuates the feminine curves of the shoe. The image design is reaching for ‘fashionista’ however this is deterred away from by the starboard graphics on the bottom of the poster that does not seem to belong. The GREAT campaign would of also done well to tailor the images UPS (unique selling point) to the nations they would be advertised in. The reasons that would inspire the Japanese to visit would differ from what would prompt Americans.
The posters are obviously intended to stir feelings of patriotism and inspiration but instead are awash with negative undertone, portraying both pomposity and economic insecurity. It seems that this ill-considered campaign is more at risk of damaging – not promoting – our national image and economy. From the straplines to the imagery, on a whole the campaign is flawed on many levels. Not exactly putting the “great back into Great Britain” (David Cameron – 09/2011).
The most striking characteristic of the posters is not the starboard graphics, un-innovative typography, patriotic theme or scenic images it is the consistent undertone of egotism portrayed in the posters which is enough to discourage even the most loyal Anglophile. The posters boast supremacy in all aspects of society, such a global assertion is bound to provoke claims to the contrary. Furthermore, this international bragging is completely unfounded. Beyond this arrogance, such self-assured declarations could also be interpreted as an admission of national economic weakness. At this point it is difficult not to compare the GREAT campaign to the unsuccessful 1990s Cool Britannia campaign.
Anyone who feels they have to remind people that Britain is great are obviously starting from the point of view that other countries don't think it is. David Cameron could also be accused of sending mixed messages, claiming that Britain is ‘great’, despite previously saying that Britain’s society and economy is ‘broken’.
The real tragedy of this campaign is not just that $100+ million that has went into the campaign, but that there are so many things that are Great about Britain and stereotypes of Britishness that have been overlooked, some of them being our dark and satirical dry-witted sense of humour, another is our self-deprecation and to be reserved, or one of the main things Great Britain is renowned for, our weather, which could of easily been portrayed in the posters through snow caped hills, soft summer rain on a lake and so on. Any of which this campaign would have done well to visually incorporate. It is a great shame that, as a representation of our nation, the posters capture none of these famously British characteristics; which are really what make Britain great, instead they have resorted to brash and simplistic branding. The posters do not push the boundaries of “great” design nor show creative flair, they are simply substandard advertising.
The longest lasting and most successful tourism campaign to date is the ‘I Love NY’ campaign. The rebus (use of pictograms and word abbreviation) is still iconic and is still frequently used more than 30 years since it was first launched in 1977. The campaign became a huge success and the white t-shirt printed with the ‘I love NY’ logo are now symbolic of the city. The Great campaign would have done well to look at this campaign for inspiration and taken a more lighthearted approach. A Campaign shouldn’t just be so externally focused; it should involve the people in the country. It is the people and the culture that make a nation.
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