Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenge
Travelers today are a discerning lot. Vacations are no more about sightseeing but about creating memorable journeys and personalized experiences. The challenge was showcase Australia to the experience seeking traveler as a destination that provides memorable journeys. The aim was to increase tourist arrivals by 10% within 12 months.

The Solution – Insight & Idea
Each Australian state has different experiences to offer. But, research shows that Malaysians feel that regardless of which Australian city they visit, the experience would not differ much. This is the hurdle in encouraging repeat visits. To overcome this hurdle, we needed to showcase Australia’s unique stories and hidden gems in a way that would whet the target’s appetite and have them clamor for more. Finding the right story teller was imperative; we needed to identify someone with multi-faceted performance capabilities. One who would be as comfortable being a host as he would be an actor. And, one who is active on the social media front. The best way to put forth the stories was through content. These stories needed to be presented and reinforced in different forms to create context for different traveler’s needs. Hence, we needed to identify a media conglomerate who can offer us multi platforms to seed the content on.

The Execution
We worked with TheStarMediaGroup as it provided avenues on both television and print. JasonGodfrey with his multifaceted resume and easy going personality, was selected as the host of “Jason Down Under”, a 7 episodic programme highlighting Australia’s hidden gems. To ensure the target’s interest does not wane, content from the programme was presented in other formats as well. Jason extended the content from the programme to the travel section of TheStar via a weekly write up mirroring the places which he introduced in that week’s programme plus some personal anecdotes to boot. He also regularly posted exclusive behind- the-scenes photos on Facebook and Instagram to keep the target’s interest. To spur engagement and advocacy amongst the target, a Watch and Win contest was created on Facebook. Across 7 weeks, 14 photos were posted. Viewers had to answer all photos correctly and write a slogan to be in the running to win a memorable journey down under.

The Results
The multi-platform campaign saw an increase of 13.4% of Malaysians tourists arriving into Australia within 12 months of the campaign – surpassing the targeted increase of 10%. Jason’s Facebook posts generated 62,000 responses seeking advice and tips on featured places which caught their fancy. The programme created interest amongst broadcasters and was snapped up by TVB Asia. Hence, sharing the memorable journey with Australia stories with a larger audience across TVB Asia’s footprint.