Tourism Victoria ‘Spotted by Locals’ Ad Effectiveness Study

Fairfax Media Case Study: Tourism Victoria 'Spotted by Locals'

One of the great joys of travel is feeling that you’ve discovered something, somewhere that is a local secret, which you are unlikely to find in a traditional guidebook. We know our Victorian readers are opinionated and they want to know more about the world around them and their role within it. They are curious by nature. A collection of well known Victorians embarked on a pilgrimage back to their regional Victorian hometown to shine the light on local, hidden gems. The diversity and richness of regional Victoria experiences were showcased through a new editorial digital destination featuring a collection of rich images, articles and videos following the travels of the talent, as they rediscovered their hometown.

This experience based content proved to be incredibly successful, shifting perceptions of destinations in regional Victoria and driving significant increases in short-break visitation intention to seven of the eight advertised regions.

Tourism Victoria ‘Spotted by Locals’ Case Study

Campaign Objectives:

To shift perceptions of regional Victoria as a domestic short-break destination, in particular among the destinations that were promoted
To drive short-break visitation to regional Victoria

Campaign Period:

22nd April – 28th June, 2013

Target Audience:

People living in Victoria aged 18 years and above

Research Methodology:

A simultaneous capture of control/exposed sample was employed, with both control and exposed groups receiving an email invitation to complete the survey after exposure to the advertising. (n=1,742)

Creative Execution:

The Tourism Victoria Spotted by Locals campaign ran as a hub on The Age Traveller website offering articles, image galleries and video content for users to browse, in addition to being able to upload their own images via Stackla, a social media tool integrating all social conversations in one location. The regional content was brought to visitors through the eyes of celebrities, local to the region in question through videos and in articles (celebrities included Paul Mercurio, Dave Hughes, Lisa Gorman and Shane Kelly among others). The Spotted by Locals hub was supported through display advertising across relevant sites on The Age website including Traveller, Good Food and Daily Life, as well as a print and tablet campaign that featured advertorials across Good Weekend, Sunday Life, the Melbourne magazine, Epicure and Life & Style.

The Results:

Overall, exposure to the Tourism Victoria Spotted by Locals campaign positively impacted the perception of all the destinations featured in the campaign and met its objective of driving visitation intention to regional Victoria for short-breaks
Visitation intention increased for all destinations after exposure to the campaign, with seven of the eight regions experiencing a significant impact in visitation intention with campaign impact being highest for Mornington Peninsula, the Grampians and the Great Ocean Road
The success of the campaign was supported by the level of Victorian enquiries and bookings from Fairfax Media’s Stayz website (a 20% increase in Victorian enquiries; and 12% increase in Victorian bookings)
The Spotted by Locals online destination was perceived very positively by the audience, with 63% liking the local celebrity theme very much and two-thirds watching the videos on the website*
Cross-platform exposure was over twice as effective at driving campaign recall (single media campaign recall was 17% compared to a cross-platform campaign recall of 42%)
The nature of a long-term regional Victoria travel hub proved to be very successful, with research showing that visitation intention for most destinations increased over time. This was largely driven by a higher frequency of exposure, driven by magazine and tablet advertising
Cross-platform exposure increased overall campaign recall significantly.