Quirky $9 million tourism campaign strikes a chord with the public

TOURISM Tasmania’s quirky new $9 million marketing campaign is already creating interest online.

Quirky campaign strikes a chord

TOURISM Tasmania has launched a quirky new $9 million marketing campaign which is already creating interest online.

Tourism Tasmania’s chief executive, John Fitzgerald said that the latest version of the highly successful Go Behind the Scenery campaign, which only started last Sunday, was already getting more than double the number of people to the campaign website compared with the previous campaign last autumn.

“The figures also show that the people using the website are being engaged by the interesting and sometimes quirky Tasmanian content, as well as the more informative travel ideas,” he said.

Mr Fitzgerald said that this year’s spring campaign was one of the largest seasonal tourism marketing campaigns every undertaken by Tourism Tasmania.

“This current campaign is valued at over $9 million, which includes our production and media investment, an additional $4 million in bonus media that we were able to secure, and around $1.5 million worth of joint promotions nationally with our commercial partners to support the campaign and generate more travel sales for Tasmania.”

The campaign, produced by Sydney creative agency Jim Jam, features a walk through some of Tasmania’s most popular tourism attractions with a collection of unusual guides.

Bobbie the lavender bear comes alive to host a walk through Bridestowe Estate, ventriloquist dummy Will Chatalot takes you to his favourite places around historic New Norfolk and penguins sing about the virtues of Bicheno Penguin Tour.

Mr Fitzgerald said that in addition to the investment in the spring campaign, there were also a number of other new elements.

“For example, the campaign now targets audiences in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

“The additional marketing funds committed by the State Government have now allowed Tourism Tasmania to expand the campaign to include the Brisbane market as part of its longer-term approach to marketing Tasmania interstate.”

Mr Fitzgerald said the latest campaign continues to use the popular and well recognised Go Behind the Scenery television commercial, as well as cinema, print and online advertising. However this time Tourism Tasmania has boosted its investment in outdoor advertising.

“This year, the campaign also includes around 92 giant billboards spread across key locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

“These billboards are expected to be seen many times by almost 3 million Australians, as they travel to work and play.”

The latest Go Behind the Scenery campaign will run on the mainland for the next two months.

For more detail about the latest campaign, see the Tourism Tasmania website.