A Year of Mexico: Live It to Believe It

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto is committed to boosting Mexico’s national and economic growth by encouraging tourism. Mexico Tourism Board is one of the main collaborators in the associated program Dual Year and “A year of Mexico in the United Kingdom” focuses on promoting Mexico as a top travel destination through a series of engaging and colourful campaigns. The “Live It to Believe It” campaign uses impressive visuals to showcase Mexico’s diverse destinations from historical sites, to buzzing cities and remarkable wildlife. It aims to give a taste of the vibrant and memorable experiences one would have when travelling in Mexico.

Targeting Commuters

In addition to the eye-catching billboards, fully wrapped London Tube trains and buses and taxis whizzing around the city, Mexico Tourism Board also ran several immersive campaigns in different corners of London throughout 2015. Location: Kings Cross St Pancras, London Dates: October 2015 Campaign features: domination, digital, vinyl wraps, integrated sound, special build JCDecaux UK transformed the high-footfall St Pancras Immersion Zone into an exotic Mexican paradise for commuters. Enveloping vinyl wraps displayed impressive visuals of some of Mexico’s most scenic locations and the surrounding digital screens played various stories about these beautiful spots. Integrated ambient sound completed the immersive experience. But the highlight was a wall with 4,500 detachable butterflies, which the delighted passers-by peeled off and took home. Overall, the campaign managed to create a welcome moment of beauty and tranquillity for the busy, rushed commuters of London encouraging them to get away from the autumn greyness and come visit the warm shores of Mexico.

Targeting Londoners and Tourists

Location: Covent Garden Piazza, London Campaign Dates: November 2015 Campaign features: experiential, special build, podium, digital, free merchandise, competition Those wandering around Covent Garden, could have a little break from the hustle and bustle at the experiential podium built in collaboration with JCDecaux OneWorld. Pedestrians were drawn towards the brightly coloured London phone booths where they could watch six different short films about some of Mexico’s key destinations. Others stopped to enjoy the artificial beach; complete with heated sun loungers and a custom lit parasol. In addition, everyone could enter into a competition to win an all-inclusive trip to Mexico before walking away with complimentary sun block and luggage tags for their next trip.

Targeting Travellers

Location: Heathrow, London Campaign Dates: November 2015 Campaign Features: special build, podium, digital, experiential, free merchandise Those flying from Heathrow this month, could pass the airport armchairs for a seat in a customised podium set up by JCDecaux UK. While waiting for their flight, they could find out something new about the Mexican history and culture via the short films played on the integrated screen in front, and grab a branded luggage tag or a travel pillow from the promoters for their flight ahead.

Mexico and the UK: a Shared History

The “Year of Mexico in the United Kingdom” is part of the larger program - the Dual Year, charted by the two governments to promote a deeper connection between Mexico and the UK; a cultural exchange of sorts. The UK is chosen to be the first partner in this program as the two countries share a long 190 year history. Not only is the UK the first European country to have recognised Mexico as an independent country but these days, the UK is a top tourism market for Mexico, that already in 2013 represented almost 10%.  Mexican Ambassador Diego Gomez, explains that the aim of this program is not only to share the diverse history and culture of Mexico with the British public but also to encourage trade collaboration and grow the commercial and political relationship between the two countries. Throughout this year Mexican artists, writers, academics, business and other experts have been coming to share their home country’s rich background. Aside from the immersive campaigns, those interested in Mexican culture but who have not had the chance to visit this country, have been attending the numerous cultural and social events taking place around the UK. These aim to open our eyes to aspects of Mexico that go beyond popular knowledge of this colourful country. In other words, they bring Mexico to us so we could “Live It to Believe It”!