The Campaign

Three celebrity walkers investigate the simple beauty of walking in an amazing natural environment, as well as the insights and physical challenges it inspires; John Francis, environmentalist, TED speaker and author of PlanetWalker- a biography about his 20 years traveling without motorised transport, actor and Olympic figure skater Katarina Witt, who’s foundation assists children with physical disabilities in regaining mobility, and Michael Milton, fastest Australian skier ever and gold metal winning Paralympian. Australia’s Tourism Victoria used the transmedia campaign to announce The Great Ocean Walk area, 104 km’s of trail around Victoria’s Great Ocean Drive, and to increase the amount of time visitors spend there. Shot in stunning HD with proprietary body-mounted camera systems, epic aerial footage, ultra-light dollies and battery powered lite panels, the campaign blends elements of cinema and verite documentary techniques. It has some powerful learnings, laughs, and speaks about Australia from an international perspective.

Success of the Campaign

And the stakeholders are all thrilled. In addition to viewership equivalent to a successful prime time television show, the PR around the show made a huge impact. Katarina Witt did a live cross during the Winter Olympics talking about how much fun she had on the walk, and later hosted the NatGeo Channel Premiere in Berlin. John Francis came back to Australia for “healthy parks, healthy people’ day and appeared on national radio and morning talk shows. Michael Milton hosted a symposium for tour operators and sent out eDM’s through his fan site and the International Paralympic Committee. Qantas and Virgin airlines are running the program in-flight, and Tourism Victoria has ordered another 30,000 units of the DVD for distribution through travel agencies and tourism partners. In fact, the PR and free media value more than covered the cost of production and media in Australia. FACT ON WALKER INCREASE?

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

The campaign rolled out over 9 months, and began with a record-breaking consumer promotion for Tourism Victoria. Announcing the production of a documentary film about the walk, consumers were invited to register for information about the film and a prize of a walking tour of the area. Over 15,000 people registered at the site – a 200% increase on previous Tourism campaigns. Then, once the documentary film was produced, other channel partners came on board; The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age agreed to do a 440,000 unit Australian DVD release giving them an increase in newspaper sales. The film was broadcast internationally as a one-hour television special on National Geographic Channel where it consistently performed 50% over its average for the time slot, and remains a rich web experience incorporating amazing nature photography, satellite tracking and interactive video on the homepage.