Great Chinese Names for Great Britain
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  • GreatChineseNamesforGreatBritain
  • GreatChineseNamesforGreatBritain

Britain invites the Chinese to name their famous landmarks.

While competing for the growing numbers of lucrative Chinese tourists, Visit Britain, the national tourist agency, knew they had to promote the country in a more welcoming and intriguing way.

With the insight that the Chinese names of a location were very important in forming a perception, Ogilvy Beijing created an integrated campaign which would give the young target market the chance to coin their own Chinese names for British landmarks.  In effect, grab an opportunity to make history, as these names would be placed on tourism literature, signage, and be submitted to wikipedia and even used on Google maps.

Media coverage went through the roof. CNN, the BBC and CCTV announced the campaign to tens of millions. Travellers proposed Chinese names for hundreds of landmarks, and Chinese travel to the UK increased by 27% during the campaign. The increase was predicted to add 470 jobs and ₤22 million to the British economy.