Cases studies

Tourism Australia University Roadshow - How to promote Australia to French students. The organisation of a University Roadshow mixed with a Facebook Promotion Buzz.

• Agencies : Interface Tourism France
• Services : Consumer Promotion - Events - Representation - Social Media

Brief

Tourism Australia has identified students as a priority target in order to promote the Working Holidays Visas Status.

Tactics

Tourism Australia has developed a highly seductive promotion aimed at reaching their target group of 18-30 year olds by organising a cross-media campaign designed to engage students in dialogue.
The cross-media promotion included the following activities:

• The Roadshow: Creation of a Roadshow concept based on a mobile stand representing Australian lifestyle. A 26 day campaign in 15 campuses and 7 major student cities was organised to promote Australia as the perfect destination for young people. Four promoters went from campus to campus with the booth and a branded pick-up truck which gave great visibility to the destination. The Australian brand Rip Curl was a partner in the roadshow, providing fashionable gifts which helped to make the event a success. On campus students were asked to participate in a Photo Competition (Photo of the best Australian Spirit Fan!). The Photo Competition was relayed on a Facebook page dedicated to Australia Working Holiday Visas and created a real buzz.
• Radio promotion: The roadshow was supported by local communication on leading youth radio station NRJ, promoting the presence of the Australian team in the local campus. Then a national NRJ campaign gave massive exposure to Australia, in partnership with Rip Curl, Cathay Pacific and Tour Operator Australie Autrement.
• Online promotion: The roadshow and the radio campaign were strengthened by online coverage on NRJ.fr and dedicated content on www.australia.com.
• Facebook platform: The Australian Facebook page was the main call to action of the campaign to engage in dialogue with the target group we reached by the radio and online promotion, or to continue direct dialogue already started with the promoters on the campus. To maximize traffic on Facebook a competition to win a trip for 2 to Australia was organised and pictures from the photo calls organised in the campus were uploaded on a daily basis.

Result

The direct results were:

• 20.000 students met during the roadshow
• 40.000 Flyers distributed during the roadshow
• 1.155 new fans registered during the campaign on the Australia facebook page.
• 1.330 entries in the competition to win a trip
• 4.000 visitors/week to the website dedicated to the event
• Visits to the Facebook page increased by 105% during the campaign
• An average of 240 posts per weeks during the campaign
• More than 1.333 photos from the campus photo call downloaded

By April 2010, the Australie Face page had more than 10.900 fans and real dialogue has been engaged during this youth campaign between Tourism Australia and its fans but also between fans themselves, thereby creating a positive word of mouth platform.