Barrington Coast campaign explainer

Is the tourism marketing campaign for Barrington Coast the best in the country?

Well, it's already claimed the title of Best Tourism Marketing in New South Wales (at the NSW Tourism Awards in November 2022), which brought us to Tourism Australia's national awards as State Finalist. Stay tuned... the awards ceremony is Friday 17 March. 🏆

So now's a good time to re-cap:

1st: Watch the 60 second campaign video below, it's a complete summary of the bold and fun creative (also watch 15sec and 30sec versions, just for fun).

2nd: Watch the campaign explainer video below... it explains our marketing campaign and how we got here.

Easy!

If you'd like more campaign details, see below.

Our inaugural marketing campaign is the best in NSW (NSW Tourism Awards: Gold 2022 + Silver 2021)

Why is it so special?

• It was informed by robust research and strategies for branding, media choice, creative design and tracking user behaviour.

• It was mostly digital but with some support from outdoor due to 26% improvement in ROI.

• We used new technology to strategise, monitor and make real-time amendments: Helix Persona Tool; Hubspot CRM.

• The use of a disruptor headline in our campaign (“Who cares if….”) was the first of its kind to be used in an Australian tourism marketing campaign.

• We used females almost exclusively within the campaign creative.

• We achieved awesome results.

What did it look like?

Our ads were bold, innovative and most of all - fun! They featured clever headlines written to match our iconic experiences because the campaign focused on the transformation of the visitor while they're here.

All content began with the phrase "Who cares if....".

But it's not a question, it's a statement designed to speak directly to our target audience. It's called a 'disruptor' and helped cut through the blandness of other destinations' advertising.

Who saw it?

Using market research we identified target audiences from Sydney and Newcastle regions that we could reach most effectively to gain maximum traction. We knew where they lived and what they read and watched online.

Where did they see it?

Our target audiences saw us on the backs and sides of buses; on huge digital billboards above busy city roads; at railway stations and bus stops; across Google banners and on Google search; on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram; plus those insertions you see across digital media that look like news items or stories but are actually sponsored content. Plus we had a campaign microsite.

When did it run?

The billboards launched April 2021; digital from May 2021 to May 2022. (Yes, even throughout the Covid lockdowns from Jun-Nov 2022)

But what were the results?

We're glad you asked...

Here's a quick summary (without all the dazzling statistics included in our award submission):

We planned well; we acted meticulously; we amended where necessary and acted some more. And the campaign results are compelling:

• Our website, social media and database are hot with increased users and followers.

• Impressions, reach, click throughs and cost per clicks are at better-than-industry rates.

• Our industry is engaged and our co-op partners loved their campaigns with increased revenues.

• Positive sentiment for Barrington Coast is booming.

• We achieved almost all our campaign KPIs and the most recent Tourism Research stats reveal we’re well on the way to achieving the remaining KPIs.