Re-energise

Background

Tourism Australia is tasked with promoting (not selling) Australia as a business conference and events destination. This is a complex task due to a highly competitive global environment for hosting events, where Australia is perceived to be a remote and costly option compared to new destinations such as Dubai and China. The sector is driven by 'relationships' that need to be nurtured in order to drive business. The objective was to generate and engage 25% of warm leads from all contacts mailed.

Idea

Making any decision that costs the business money, and involves flying half way across the world, can be a difficult process. Even more so as the decision making process within large organisations often involves many different individuals. To make it easier, the agency's strategy was first to excite multiple contacts about Australia as a business events destination and then to provide them with the tools that would make it easy for them to make their event a reality. A multi-channel campaign with separate, but inter-related, pieces was developed, with each piece aimed at getting the right information about hosting events in Australia to the right recipient in the decision-making process.

The 'Corporate Decision Maker', who is responsible for final sign-off but usually relies on somebody else to gather all the information and do the organising (the 'Influencer'), was sent a pack intended to get them excited about Australia. It contained a specially commissioned, limited edition artwork by renowned Aboriginal artist Jimmy Nerrimah, on the theme of 'rejuvenation'. The artwork came with a booklet that provided the recipient with top-line information about re-energising their business team in Australia. It also informed them that their colleague had received another pack supplying all the information needed for organising a conference in Australia.

Influencers received a mail pack that resembled a didgeridoo. Each pack contained a special edition Events Australia iPod with a pre-loaded podcast showcasing Australia as a business event destination and inviting them to visit their personalised website. On the website, each visitor encountered a landing page specific to their company. They were invited to register to receive the Events Kit (a set of books) and ongoing case studies. As planning a large business event can take up to two years, this would ensure an ongoing dialogue. They were also able to forward the podcast to people within their company and these people were also encouraged to register to receive ongoing case studies.

Results

The campaign delivered 46% of all recipients as warm leads with each of these recipients logging onto their personalised website, and either registering for an Events Kit (13%), subscribing to a podcast (17%), or contacting Tourism Australia personally to praise the campaign and express their thanks for the pack (18%). In addition to the people who directly received the packs, an average of six other people per company also logged onto the website. Furthermore, while most events are planned two years in advance, this campaign has already seen one confirmed booking and another in advanced planning for an event for 10,000 people each of which, according to research, will deliver AUS$400 per person per day in spend.

Target Audience

International business prospects in Asia, the UK and USA.

Size

100 personalised cover wraps, news broadcasts and microsites

Our Thoughts

If you’re going to talk to top CEOs and get them to commit large sums of money to organising conferences in your country, you can’t do it by halves. Once again it’s the Australians who demonstrate that money spent on production is money well spent. Everything they mailed was something you’d want to keep if you were the recipient. And the first response – a company pledging to bring 10,000 people to Oz, each spending $400 a day. So that’s upwards of $12m in additional revenue already. Spend money on production and you will be rewarded, truly.