Australian celebrity put to good use in tourism campaign

Australia may be known for its beautiful coastlines and other natural beauties, but premium travel agents, the travel trade and consumers don’t always know about the other kinds of experiences to be had only in Australia. This led Tourism Australia to set an ambitious target: Encourage travelers to spend $114 billion on travel to Australia by 2020. Its success has won first place in the “Content Marketing/Brand Journalism” category of PR Daily’s 2018 Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

The effort meant “targeting affluent high-spending visitors across all key markets,” according to Tourism Australia. To achieve this goal, the organization set out to redefine the meaning of “luxury” and drive luxury travelers to Australia. 

A content suite press kit and a calendar segmenting content by interest (e.g., wellness, active specialty touring, food and wine, etc.) served as a discovery vehicle, along with materials for outreach to journalists, storytellers and influencers. Among those who answered the call: National Geographic, which broadcast to Facebook Live from a helicopter looking down from above Sydney. The broadcast attracted nearly 2 million live views and became the iconic magazine’s most popular Facebook event. 

Tourism Australia also recognized the important role celebrity endorsers had on its target market, 29 percent of whom rely on celebrities to inspire them to consider luxury travel destinations. The team tapped “Thor” actor Chris Hemsworth, who shared the experiences he and his family had at luxury destinations to which Tourism Australia sent them. 

The organization shared data from the campaign (e.g., 11 million engagements from the social posts from Hemsworth and his wife), but more impressive is the fact that Australia regained the No. 1 “Ultimate” Dream Destination for Americans title, according to the United States Tour Operators Association. 

Congratulations to the team of Kristen Malaby, Julie Earle Levine and Nicole Foster.