Appealing to tourists via branded entertainment : from theory to practice

Special Issue: Tourism Marketing Research: Current Issues II. This special volume has been possible with generous funding support available from Walter Kwok Foundation.Although tourism marketers have not traditionally incorporated branded entertainment into their marketing mix, they are beginning to employ the strategy to attract tourists through the mediums of film, television, and the Internet. In this paper a closer look is taken at the use of branded entertainment by destinations, using the “Brand USA” campaign as a case study. Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States, used three media platforms to promote the country, partnering with television, film, and digital content producers to present engaging stories that would attract international tourists. The case study serves as a method for identifying critical and successful factors necessary for effective branded entertainment, which is an area that has received little attention from the tourism literature.School of Hotel and Tourism Managemen