Powered by Nine's Kath Solly, Group Creative Solutions Manager, and Bradley Johnston, Content Producer, explain how a high-impact cross-media approach allowed Tourism NT to reignite Australia's appetite for travel and appreciation for the Northern Territory's rich Aboriginal history.
In 2022, Tourism NT briefed Nine to drive a connection between our audience and the cultural landscape of the Northern Territory, with key events such as the Darwin Festival, Barunga Festival, Desert Mob and Desert Song Festival at the forefront of the campaign.
The objective was to encourage an audience interested in arts, music and culture to consider travelling to the NT, by harnessing the power of Nine’s ecosystem to excite them about the opportunities.
Over the last few years Australia’s tourism industry, along with the rest of the world, has been struggling to stay afloat. With back-and-forth border closes, restriction changes and last-minute cancellations now a thing of the past, getting back into travelling has never felt so good.
Today, more than ever, tourism bodies are fighting for audience and visitors to encourage them to take their saved-up annual leave and spend travel budgets to visit somewhere on their doorstep – in Australia.
The key challenge is being heard above all the noise. Travel-related advertising is EVERYWHERE right now, with international and interstate tourism bodies flooding the media with enticing offers and experiences to put their destinations on the map in 2022.
How did Tourism NT stand out in such an over-saturated travel market?
In 2022, Tourism NT and Nine, in partnership with Atomic212, joined forces to bring Australian Aboriginal culture to the forefront. Tourism NT focused less on reaching travel intenders and those looking for a holiday destination and more on culture, art, music and event lovers, by making a trip to the NT a key drawcard.
The Northern Territory’s events have something totally different to offer than any other destination in Australia. The campaign proposition to the culture seeking audience explores how it is entertainment but not as you know it. Because events in the Territory allow you to connect with your passions on a deeper level. From art and music to food and cars, the Territory puts on events like nowhere else. Here you can get closer to, touch and immerse yourself in your passions, forming a deeper connection with arts and culture. There will be an overarching message that these events are all unique to the NT and different in every sense.
We wanted to ensure that the cultural and artistic preciousness of the Northern Territory was brought to life across all our assets. With that in mind we created a cross-platform campaign employing Nine’s Total Audio and Total Publishing platforms to drive cut-through and reach with unique creative executions. The campaign shone a light on “Stories Worth Travelling For”, putting the rich culture of the Northern Territory at the forefront of every content piece.
The power of audio came to the fore. By harnessing the scale and reach of Nine Audio, aligned to the beautiful sounds of the Northern Territory, Nine created audio-immersive content that spoke directly to the key events in the NT to entice our culture-loving audience.
These immersives were peppered with the rich sounds of music and nature that are so special to the Northern Territory. All you have to do is close your eyes and listen to these audio clips to feel instantly immersed in the culture of the place.
Alongside radio, a high-impact campaign spanning digital and print ensured that culture, art and music was the main feature of the campaign. Tourism NT wrapped Nine’s art-focused, newspaper-inserted Spectrum magazine with powerful imagery putting Aboriginal culture at the forefront of the campaign and reminding our audience of Australia’s rich cultural heritage.
Through further online immersive and native content with Traveller, our Powered Studios team produced content that highlighted the beautiful imagery and dreamy landscape of the NT. Content across Traveller was aimed directly at the discrete culture-loving audience, while also appealing to the older travel-intender audience with art and culture in mind when planning their travel destinations.
The campaign started a month prior to the program of events to drive ticket sales and long-weekend travel planning to the Northern Territory.
“Tourism NT can’t outshout and outspend other destinations in the highly competitive tourism advertising market, to cut through we have to be innovative and rely on media partners who share our vision to make the NT the premiere destination for Aboriginal cultural experiences and to be truly ‘Different in every sense'. Nine is one of those partners who consistently support our messaging and provide return on investment that grows the value of the holiday market in the Northern Territory.”
For more information on Powered by Nine, Nine’s marketing services division, head to https://www.nineforbrands.com.au/powered-by-nine/
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