Travel South collaborated with state tourism offices and travel-focused social media platform Vacaay.com to create a visually stunning, highly interactive campaign focused on generating awareness and interest among Australian and New Zealand travelers.
Campaign Overview
With more than 500 tiles of stunning photography, planning tips, influencer itinerary building and trade booking partners, this multi-dimensional campaign far exceeded expectations. Users can engage with the visual content: like, share, see directions, visit partner websites, create custom itineraries and book travel. “We very much fit in the awareness and inspiration area of the tourism funnel,” says Tristan Freedman, Vacaay.com Regional Director – North America. “A campaign with Vacaay isn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it. We offer a guarantee on engagements so we will keep delivering impressions on our cards until we’ve reached the minimum number of engagements. For this campaign, we far exceeded the minimums.” The initial benchmark for the campaign was set at 500k engagements, and the campaign surpassed 700k engagements across the 10 participating states.
Key Takeaways from the Campaign
At the conclusion of the campaign, each participating state was supplied a comprehensive report, detailing user demographic data, engagement metrics, most popular destinations and most impactful content. Each state had its own stand-out winners of content that appealed to different audiences.
“There’s a clear difference across the states. The South isn’t clumped as one whole destination. It’s a unique mix of different experiences, and each state can each have its own voice and really own that,” says Freedman. “It’s really important that you’re focused on the content that your audience might either know you for or want to know you for. Too many times DMOs try to be a jack-of-all-trades. In a competitive environment, play to your strengths. Find your niches and focus on that, and you’ll engage your audiences better.”
What’s Next for Travel South and Vacaay.com
Travel South and Vacaay.com are looking ahead to Phase 2 of their campaign, refining content based on learnings and developing more curated content to appeal to travelers. As international travelers stay longer and base their travel on experiences that fit their interests, they often cross state lines to create the ideal trip experience, from authentic culinary excursions to incredible outdoor adventures. “Let’s look at the key themes and populate content based on the themes, rather than the states,” says Freedman. “It’s not about the state border lines. The more you make of the experience, versus the state, the more you can tap into those reasons for travel.”