This summer sees the return of The Open to St Andrews and the 150th Championship will be the largest in its long history. More than 1.3 million people applied for tickets – and a record-breaking 290,000 fans are set to attend across the seven days. Crucially – for our area’s benefit – it is estimated than 60% of those visiting will look to return to north east Fife in the next 12 months … that’s a potential 174,000 people looking to come back and explore what is on offer. And so to engage with those visiting this year and to help raise Cupar’s profile as never before, we are running a TV campaign through the summer …

CuparNow’s Chair, Andrew Thomson, explains: “Our remit is to support the 421 businesses and organisations whose contributions enable the work that CuparNow delivers. A huge amount is achieved through the digital channels that are managed on a day to day basis, including support for all manner of community events, projects and initiatives.” He adds: “Our steering group – predominantly made up of business owners and managers in the town – took the decision to look at how we can spread Cupar’s message more widely across the town’s drive-time.”

Destination66 – the company that delivers CuparNow – appointed Fife-based Granite Creative Productions to help make the commercial. Simon Baldwin of Destination66 says: “We have worked with the company before on small video projects – for CuparNow and other clients – and we knew they’d ‘get’ what the town is all about.” Simon adds: “TV commercials are a significant investment. We secured matched funding that has doubled the STV airtime and also secured an uplift with the commercial being added to the STV Player – STV’s streaming service – that has more than 700,000 browsers each month, right across the country.”

Filming for the ad took place through May and June capturing clips from in and around the town that have been edited to showcase Cupar …

Simon says: “The town has a very small accommodation offering, so this is not about overnight stays. We wanted to give a glimpse of what could be discovered and enjoyed on a day trip.”

The 30-second commercial invites viewers to “spend a day in Cupar & Country” – to discover the town’s heritage, family fun, local produce, food & drink and shopping.

On the commercial, Andrew Thomson adds: “No business names or brands are featured – deliberately – simply a flavour of the town to tempt people to discover Cupar & Country. The TV campaign is an exciting step and will put the town front and centre as a destination to be explored and enjoyed in what promises to be an exceptionally busy summer for Cupar and our area.”

Jim Hair, Chair of ABCD, agrees, saying: “The town’s business association welcomes this innovative investment that will reap benefits far beyond the length of the campaign. The summer ahead will be one of the busiest for many years with visitors coming to our area from all over the world, so I am delighted to see this promotion showcasing Cupar in such a positive light.”

Moira Henderson, Chair of the local tourism association, adds: “Cupar and the surrounding countryside has a host of fantastic attractions for people to enjoy – with something to suit all ages. This campaign – focusing on a day out – will help to support our local tourism sector by making more people more aware of the town and all that it has to offer, not only for visitors to North Fife but also local folk who may not be aware of our hidden gems.“ 

And Bill Pagan, Chair of the town’s Development Trust, says: “We are already seeing the enormous benefits provided by the town having a joined-up approach, largely thanks to digital communication – reduced retail vacancy rates and increased visibility in property searches to name but two.” He adds: “CuparNow is instrumental in this and other support work. The creation and delivery of a TV campaign that will run for some three months in one of the busiest summers the area will have seen in years is a wonderful boost to the town and a real testament to those businesses and organisations who support and fund this unique initiative.”

CuparNow’s TV campaign runs on STV’s Dundee region from Friday July 1st and the video will also be used on social media campaigns through the same period.

 

Backing business …

The TV campaign follows on from CuparNow’s support for Fife’s Food & Drink Trails – a series of trails all centred on Cupar enabling visitors to filter and search for eateries, producers, food & drink retailers as well as pubs.

Launched at an event in Cupar in May – with a culinary showcase delivered by Christopher Trotter – the trails, resulting from a Cupar Development Trust initiative with support from the Regional Food Fund – include more than 280 businesses.

In the short time since the site launched it has attracted thousands of foodies keen to discover more on the area’s offering. A printed guide – delivered by CuparNow – is being distributed across the area throughout The Open and summer. The guide has QR codes that enable clicks to each of the trails – and hundreds have already used the codes to read more on the trails and businesses featured. More businesses are being added as the weeks go by.

To explore, click on the image below …

 

Need more on The Open?

The following are key stats taken from The Open’s website …

• The independent forecast by SIRC, which was commissioned by The R&A, VisitScotland and Fife Council, reveals that the total economic impact resulting from staging The 150th Open will reach £100 million for the first time.
• An additional destination marketing benefit of £100 million to St Andrews and Scotland, which is produced by global media exposure of the Championship and independently measured by YouGov Sport, makes up the forecast total economic benefit of £200 million.
• The R&A is continuing its drive to ensure the Championship is accessible to young people:
  • A record 20% of general admission tickets have been allocated to fans under the age of 25
  • Over 20,000 children aged under 16 who will be attending free of charge thanks to the long-running ‘Kids Go Free’ initiative.
• A record 80,000 spectators will attend the four Practice Days, exceeding the total of 61,000 fans who attended the equivalent days at Royal Portrush in 2019.
  

You can read the Spectator’s Guide via this link.

Thanks for reading.