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HOW AD CAMPAIGN HELPED LURE U.K. SHOPPERS

Taubman Centers doesn’t own any malls in the United Kingdom. But in the weeks leading up to last Christmas, the company’s director of communications, Karen MacDonald, appeared on a dozen British radio shows. She talked about U.S. shopping centers and the bargains that U.K. visitors could expect here because of the pound’s strength against the greenback.

MacDonald even played on the British affinity for American pop culture, encouraging listeners to visit American shopping sites made famous in the movies, including Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Pretty Woman).

Those on-air chats were part of a $6 million, U.S.-government-sponsored marketing campaign designed to encourage visits by international tourists. “This is the first time the United States has ever advertised and promoted itself in such a manner,” said Doug Baker, deputy assistant secretary for services at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Working with an advisory board that includes Taubman Chairman and CEO Robert S. Taubman, the department launched the campaign last year to counteract the effects on tourism from the Sept. 11 attacks and the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in Asia.

In 2003 some 40 million international visitors to the United States spent about $80 billion. That was down from the 51 million visitors who spent $103 billion in 2000, the Commerce Department said.

The department decided to aim the program at the United Kingdom, which generates the largest number of foreign visitors to the United States. It plans to extend the program soon to Japan or Canada while maintaining momentum in the U.K. for a second year. The campaign is funded through taxes and contributions from a variety of private companies.

Shopping, the No. 1 activity of the international traveler, according to the Commerce Department and Taubman, is a major theme of the campaign — which includes television, radio and print ads, billboards in such high-traffic locations as the London Underground railway system, and a Web site (www.seeamerica.org.uk).

Because the campaign was rolled out at a time when U.K. residents in general were making travel plans for the following year, it is likely to begin producing its real results this year, says Baker. In the meantime, a weak dollar is helping take up any slack.

— AR