Selling the US

Toby McCarrick, a senior vice president in the Tourism and Lifestyle practice of Edelman, has sold states (Illinois), areas (Puerto Rico) and even hotels (Wyndham). But never before has he marketed an entire country. “It’s been ten years since the old United States Travel and Tourism Administration last had a marketing and public relations campaign,” said Mr McCarrick. Edelman, a public relations firm based in Chicago, was named by the Department of Commerce to be part of a team to advertise, market and conduct a public relations campaign to entice international visitors to the US. Virtually every other country in the world spends millions selling themselves as a tourist destination, but the US stopped doing it a decade ago when the former Travel and Tourism Administration was disbanded. Now, however, the Department of Commerce is putting up $6 million for a pilot program aimed at getting more visitors from the UK. “The UK is the number one market for visitors to the US. We thought it would be a place for the quickest turnabout in terms of travel,” said Mr McCarrick. He said he could not be specific on how the US will be sold, partly because any plans would have to be approved by government officials. But he did say there will be a lot of tie-in advertising opportunities for tour operators and others in the travel business. “We obviously can’t close the sale. We can only direct consumers to where they can buy. So we’ll have perhaps a large message with maybe 20 smaller ads from tour operators or others,” he said. In at least one area of sales, the US will be marketed similar to many products. And that’s in selling the US as a brand just as if it were McDonald’s or Wendy’s.