Brand USA Newsletter - March 2020

A Moment With Chris Thompson

Dear Partners,

On behalf of my colleagues at Brand USA, I offer our thoughts and support to each of you as we have all been impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19. It is my sincere hope that we will continue to remain vigilant and take care of ourselves and our communities during these challenging times.

We have reached a critical moment in this crisis, where the profound impact on our industry is felt at the local, state, and global levels. Given this rapidly evolving situation, Brand USA remains committed to keeping our partners and stakeholders informed. You can always find the latest Brand USA updates, messaging, and resources on coronavirus here.

During this difficult moment, Brand USA is listening to the advice of public health officials and making decisions based on facts and in-market insights. Given our responsibility to prudently use the funds entrusted to us, Brand USA has paused most of our paid media activities and canceled or postponed upcoming events that would convene groups of people in the United States. We will proceed with specific in-market trade activations such as the USA Discovery Program training platform, and we continue to post empathetic messages to the millions of people around the world who have signed up to follow us on channels like Instagram, Facebook, Weibo, and WeChat. Importantly, as so many of us remain at home, we continue to make available the GoUSA TV platform to deliver the entertainment consumers are seeking and keep a steady stream of inspirational content available. GoUSA TV also remains a vital tool for our partners to continue to push out content and invite the world to dream of visiting when the time is right.

While we are mostly paused for the moment, we are actively developing a coordinated plan to help our industry and our partners quickly restart at the first sign it makes sense to do so. Our goal is to use this time to create programs that activate the widely-held desire to visit the United States.

These are difficult times for our nation and for our industry. However, we are resilient and we have come back strong from tough times before. I’m confident that we will do so again, and I look forward to working with each and every one of you in this important charge.

Together, we are marketing the USA.

Chris signature

Chris Thompson
President & CEO
Brand USA