Since 2010, Brand USA has been tasked with positioning and marketing the United States as a tourist destination in countries around the world. At first glance, this should be a relatively straightforward and easy task. After all, when you can take in the wonder of the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite National Park, and Las Vegas all in just one vacation, the choice should be a no-brainer.

But as the US rebounded from the 2008 financial crisis, much of the world remained in a deep global recession, making a trip to America too expensive for many. This was particularly true in the UK, where travelers already felt over-familiar with the US, leading many to hold off on booking a new trip anytime soon.

We needed to dispel notions that UK travelers had seen it all and inspire them with a new, authentic side of the US.

We recognized that American sports – and the greater halo of culture surrounding our teams and these types of experiences – offers a unique way of connecting with certain travelers and encouraging them to discover all the possibilities the U.S. has to offer.

To take advantage of the potential surrounding this passion point, we invited three UK-based influencers, friends, and sports fans to take a quintessential American road trip. As they traversed the American south, taking in classic sports experiences and documenting the culture surrounding them, they were able to use their own experiences as fans to see the US in a completely new light.

From tailgates and homecoming events to the food and cultures that make each of their destinations unique, our friends were immersed in everything US sports culture had to offer.

From a shared language to a long history of travel between our two countries, there's a feeling of "been there, done that" amongst many UK travelers. They would rather go somewhere new and exciting rather than a place they feel like they already know. After all, how many times can you visit the Empire State Building?

To combat this sense of over-familiarity with America, we partnered with COPA90 (a UK football organization dedicated to telling the stories of sports fans) to tap into the authentic, powerful voices of three local UK influencers to show the U.S. in a new, unexpected perspective.

By choosing sports and fan culture as a common denominator, we were able to anchor their experience in something familiar and recognizable before turning it on its head and inspiring travel in a new, unexpected way.

At the core of this idea was a 15-minute documentary film capturing the experiences of our three friends. Our partner, COPA90, a UK-based sports media channel, hosted and promoted our documentary on their social channels. This approach allowed us to leverage their extensive reach of existing viewers without significant additional paid media support.

Additionally, to amplify the efforts of our campaign, our three influencers created and posted content through their owned channels to their significant followings in real time, adding authenticity and increased engagement with our efforts – all of which was added value.

Our documentary went live on November 24, 2018 and was developed with a UK-based audience in mind, although the platform has a global audience.

Our campaign surpassed all benchmarks we had determined at the offset.

The center piece of our campaign, the 15-minute documentary received nearly 2.5 million video views, which was a 78% increase over our planned benchmark.

Social media posts from COPA90 and our influencers' owned accounts received 354,127 engagements, a 136% increase over our planned benchmark.

And overall we created 102 pieces of content, which greatly exceeded our contracted amount of 25 pieces – speaking to the true power our campaign had to inspire real influencers about travel to the US.