Bringing Australia's tourism offerings into the living rooms of Aussies

Challenge

In the wake of devastating bushfires and a global pandemic bringing travel to a complete standstill, Australian tourism was facing the most difficult period in the sector’s history. We were tasked with reigniting the dream for travel in Australia by facilitating international audiences to explore and experience Australia remotely, and increase Australians’ intention to travel domestically.

Culture

In search of new forms of social interaction, audiences were searching for and streaming live content three times more than in pre COVID-19 times. Considering this, we went where the audiences were with a content offering they couldn’t get anywhere else.

Creativity

In partnership with Tourism Australia and its agency village, we created Live From Aus – a live virtual holiday, hosted on Facebook, connecting viewers around the world with a new Aussie travel experience, on the hour every hour, for an entire weekend. We partnered with Channel 10 to create The Love Australia Project - a network-first, special-edition of The Project that provided a compelling media moment to launch the campaign. Then we handed over the reins to 40 tourism industry operators and personalities to show off the incredible breadth of Australia’s tourism offering through their unique live stories and experiences. We engaged celebrity chefs including Matt Moran, Hayden Quinn and Jock Zonfrillo, entertainers like Rove McManus, The Wiggles and Jack River, and Outback Wrangler Matt Wright to add some star power to our weekend lineup. Across 32 live streams, guides and storytellers from every state and territory went live on Tourism Australia’s social channels all weekend, giving homebound viewers the opportunity to experience the very best of Australia from the comfort of their couches.

Clout

The epic ‘Live From Aus’ weekend delivered these results: Ahead of the live weekend, our Facebook event reached 16M users and secured 100K sign ups; The Love Australia Project, special TV event, went live on May 15, reaching 1.27 million Aussie viewers and trending #1 on Twitter nationally; The 'Live From Aus' event streamed live on 16 and 17 May, drawing 6.6 million live views and delivering 12 years of viewership in just 36 hours. The total view count for the event climbed to 34 million over the following fortnight, engaging people from over 40 countries; Globally, the campaign generated 226 million impressions and reached 127 million unique social users, driving significant lifts in recall and sentiment in all international markets. The campaign earned 1,765 pieces of media coverage, with 100% positive sentiment, delivering an estimated 1 billion reach through global PR.

Importantly, ‘Live From Aus’ genuinely reignited the dream of travel in Australia, with travel booking sites like Booking.com recording an instant 10x spike in search for Australian holiday experiences and many featured tourism operators receiving new bookings directly attributable to their Live From Aus stream.

desktop-1.adapt.1920.high
image.adapt.740.medium