FROM THE COUCH TO THE COAST

TitleFROM THE COUCH TO THE COAST
BrandTOURISM CENTRAL COAST
Product / ServiceCENTRAL COAST
EntrantAFFINITY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation AFFINITY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production AFFINITY Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Luke Brown AFFINITY CEO
Angela Smith AFFINITY Chief Strategy Officer
Jenna Duncan AFFINITY Head of Design
Laurette Douglas AFFINITY Head of Research
Leo Bajzert AFFINITY Creative Director

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

We were tasked with making the Central Coast (a region in NSW Australia) a more desirable destination and to drive visitation. We first needed to tackle the Coast’s perception problem within our primary target audience of those living in Sydney. We started by developing a unique methodology to empirically test positionings through programmatic digital. Using these learnings, we then launched a full-scale multi-channel campaign, applying the data-driven insight to create cohesive messaging across a fully integrated campaign spanning TV, programmatic digital (video, banner), social and outdoor, helping to generate $186M in additional tourism (an increase of 22.3%) for the region.

Background

The Central Coast, just an hour north of Sydney in NSW Australia had a big tourism problem. People had stopped coming, and tourism spend in the region had been declining in real terms since 2014. Extensive research showed that Sydneysiders, traditionally the Coast’s biggest source of visitors, regarded it as bit downmarket – “the Bogan capital of Australia”. We were tasked with reversing the decline in tourism through shifting perception of the Coast as a great place to visit. Objectives: 1. Improve perception of the Coast – Part 1. Improve at least 1 ranking position on most desirable destination list, from 12th position. 2. Improve perception of the Coast – Part 2. Improve prompted recall of Central Coast attributes by 1% at aggregate 3. Increase intention to travel. Increase by 1% intention to travel for holiday within the twelve months 4. Improve tourism spend by 1%

Describe the creative idea

We created a series of simple, highly targeted ads with complementary landing pages – all designed to learn which strategic positioning would drive perception and behavioural change. Our direct campaign showed substantially more people were interested in the adventure creative, but not too adventurous. Through evolving our targeted digital campaign, we found that the adventure territory generated not only more interest, but actual purchase behaviour. Whilst it was now clear that Sydney visitors wanted adventure, it was a softer “little” adventure that would drive behavioural change. This allowed us to develop a fully integrated campaign based on Adventure, leading us to the core proposition of “Have a Little Adventure”. To be memorable, we needed to create an ownable asset for the Coast, something more than the usual montage of fabulous location shots every tourism campaign seems to favour. So, we borrowed from the quintessential holiday souvenir: the snow dome.

Describe the strategy

Our strategy was to tackle the perception problem. We knew if we could shift perception, then all other challenges could be met. But before we developed any campaign work, we needed to understand exactly how to position the region. We used quantitative research to test four traveller archetypes: nature, escape, discovery and adventure. And people said “escape” would be the best motivator to get them to the Coast. However, we weren’t confident that simply conducting a survey would provide unequivocal insight as to how to shift perception and therefore behaviour. We wanted to know what they would actually do, not what they said they would do. So, we did something completely innovative. We used a synthesis of research, everything we’ve learnt about campaign optimisation, messaging options and conversion rate measurement.

Describe the execution

We combined TV, programmatic digital (video, banner), social and outdoor to power perception change, and native and PR to showcase the range of adventures to encourage usage occasion based on the data from the MVPT . We utilised television to talk to Sydney broadly, with a focus around travel programming and digital to target our core profitable audiences Generation X and Empty Nesters as part of a data-driven media strategy. And critically, rather than trying to talk to all people in Sydney through digital, we concentrated on our core segments and Sydneysiders that we detected were in market for a short break. The major campaign ran 24 June to 10 October 2018 and a “always on” social, native and SEM campaign started in December and ran through to March 2019.

List the results

Despite all the challenges stacked against us, we smashed our objectives. By changing perception of the region, we increased desirability of the region’s brand. This led to both improved intention to travel but more importantly, actual visitation. We increased tourism on the Coast to deliver the highest tourist spend on record – $1,019,000,000. YE March 2019, we delivered significant behavioural change with 943,000 additional daytrip and overnight visitors (+19.5%) getting off their couches and going to the Coast. They stayed an additional 471,000 nights (+9.8%). And generated a huge business impact – an extra $186,000,000 in tourism spend (+22.3%) for the region. For context, this increase in tourism spend was over 600% higher than regional NSW. It wasn’t a category effect. Data-lead insight driven by new collection methods and clever analysis beats over-complication every time. As an extraordinary ROI of 186:1 shows