Relaunching the GREAT Love campaign
The GREAT campaign was first launched in 2012 to encourage the world to visit, study and invest in the UK, with Love is GREAT being launched in 2014. Our team led the creative refresh and worldwide relaunch of the UK’s global campaign celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and promoting the UK’s values of inclusivity, diversity and freedom.
GREAT Love was relaunched at Sydney World Pride 2023 to showcase the warm welcome of a modern UK through LGBTQIA+ storytellers. Since its inception as Love is Great in 2014 – when the UK introduced same-sex marriage in England and Wales and subsequently Northern Ireland – the campaign has been present at over 50 Prides across the globe, as well as supporting LGBTQIA+ business, cultural, sports and tourism events and international conferences.
The importance of being authentic
In 2021 we refreshed the whole of the GREAT campaign across the globe but decided to pause on refreshing GREAT Love. We didn’t want to rush and get the message wrong; a huge amount of equity had been built up in the campaign, with a lot of love for Love from both our audiences and the international network.
We were also acutely aware of the sensitive environment in which this campaign operates and the importance of speaking authentically. We worked very closely with our creative agency and a specialist LGBTQIA+ research consortium to develop our creative approach and strategy. We knew that sharing an intimate, personal story with others is one of the most powerful ways we can create marketing impact.
One of the most challenging aspects of delivering this work was ensuring it was authentically representing the full spectrum of the UK’s LGBTQIA community and figures from across the UK.
We worked with a host of famous faces and lesser-known names to find these stories and ensure they were front and centre of our campaign. Explaining to them what the purpose of the campaign was – the apolitical nature of GREAT – and the positive work that it was building on.
In this campaign we not only hero the people from our thriving LGBTQIA+ community in the UK, but also the objects, places or icons that signify a pivotal moment in their lives through paid social, press releases and activation.
Our GREAT Love heroes
In March 2023, GREAT Love was launched to the globe at World Pride with a host of prominent UK LGBTQIA+ figures, including Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams OBE and BBC Radio One presenter Adele Roberts.
The GREAT Love float was the only foreign government float to participate in Mardi Gras, featuring on ABC to an audience of over half a million people. GREAT also hosted a trade reception aboard Cunard’s iconic ship the Queen Victoria in Sydney Harbour attended by 100 business leaders and supported by a GREAT Love drone show above the Sydney Opera House, garnering approximately £1.5m of value-in-kind support for the campaign and attracting broad press attention.
The activity was supported by a paid social media campaign which was amplified organically by our storytellers and the press. The campaign reached an audience of over 5 million people, driving significant positive perception shifts, encouraging them to consider visiting, studying and investing in the UK.
This campaign is now being rolled out across the globe and has since featured at Pride events in New York, Miami, São Paulo, Rome, Paris, Beijing, Washington DC, and many others. We will be looking to update the campaign going forward, bringing in a broader range of diverse voices.
Getting the campaign to this point would not have been possible without the incredible work of the team, and those at Post in Australia.