Legends campaign image with text

Article published 09/12/2019

October marked the conclusion of the Business Events team's award-winning campaign, Legends. The campaign has won international acclaim for it's truly involving, inclusive and innovative approach. Over two years Legends has highlighted Scotland's key sectors and promoted their innovative, pioneering and inspiring work to a global association and conference audience. A national, social media led campaign, Legends was a first for our industry, and helped create a unified Scotland message for the first time.

Over 24 months, in partnership with Scotland's Business Events community, the incredible work of 12 Scottish Sectors were projected across the world. Over 150 organisations have been involved in the campaign, including innovation centres, universities, research centres, and even start-ups.

To get the Legends story out to our markets VisitScotland produced 16 talking head videos featuring CEO's, Sector Leads and researchers from organisations including the Data Lab, Technology Scotland and the Scottish Government. Over 40 videos were produced for the campaign by partners, each spotlighting cutting edge innovation in Scotland. These videos, and other content shared in the last two years have generated over 90 million impressions for the campaign #IdeasBecomeLegend, and our videos have been viewed over 6,000 times.

Food and Drink Legends Campaign

The campaign concluded with the Scotland's Food & Drink sector, September - October 2019.

Away from the online campaign Legends has inspired new events to start in Scotland. In 2018 Legends contributed to the creation of the Scotland Fintech Festival which completed its second year in September 2019, featuring over 30 events across Scotland over a three-week period. Further inaugural events will launch over the coming months and years. In June 2019, we launched the Legends Legacy Network, bringing together an initial 15 research and innovation institutions from across Scotland. The Legacy Network is now poised to work with VisitScotland to ensure that when conferences come to Scotland we maximise the benefit beyond the initial spend.

The initial phase of Legends has concluded having changed the Scottish business events narrative forever. Our vast knowledge economy has been promoted and highlighted. The next steps in Scotland's story will be even more exciting. Scotland is the place where ideas change the world and for business events, Scotland will continue to be the place where #IdeasBecomeLegend.

ICCA award group photo win

Legends Campaign, ICCA Best Marketing Award Winner 2018, ICCA World Congress, Dubai

Read articles and watch videos from experts in Scotland's key sectors and let them inspire you to Scotland for your next event.