VIRTUAL POPULATION EXPLOSION FOR AUSTRALIA’S NORTHERN TERRITORY

 

Tourism NT, the Tourist Office for Australia’s Northern Territory, and WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?) have significantly increased the virtual population of the NT to 1.2 million through a highly successful online travel campaign which used the popular networking site’s ability to target members in innovative ways.

 

Tourism NT ran a campaign between mid November and January to position itself as the ‘Real Outback’ on WAYN.com. The NT featured as the site’s ‘Destination of the Month’ and WAYN.com created NT Profile ‘Skins’ which promoted the NT’s spectacular landscapes and popular tourist spots such as the Red Centre (Uluru) and the Tropical North (Kakadu National Park). Skins equal visibility on WAYN.com with every one of more than 10 million members using these to differentiate themselves online, and promote something that they are interested in. Within the space of two months, the NT with its branded, travel inspired images had been selected by over 1.2 million member profiles as their profile skin, with a total of 2.2 million unique members viewing an NT profile skin on one of their friends’ or another members’ profile at least once during the same period. This means that the online NT community on WAYN is over five times the size of the NT’s actual population!

 

A targeted ad campaign generated NT content via photos, comments, messages, and videos from members. A specially created NT profile provided images, tips and guides for the destination, including a photo library of Aboriginal culture, art, nature and wildlife; videos of destination highlights; blogs; a weather guide and links to the official Tourism NT website www.australiasoutback.com. This content encouraged interaction amongst the WAYN users and educated users about the NT as a holiday destination.

 

Marketing Director, Annika Erskine (WAYN.com) commented on the campaign: “We’ve been thrilled by the success in partnering with Tourism NT for the re-launch of the new WAYN ‘Travel’ channel. As the featured ‘Destination of the Month’, the Northern Territory profile generated an extremely high level of member engagement through photo ratings, comments, personal emails and friend requests. The campaign has been a source of inspiration and education for our members - specifically in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Scandinavia where the campaign was targeted - to consider the Northern Territory as a future travel destination.”

 

Fleur Burrows, Consumer Marketing Manager for Tourism NT commented: “We are delighted with the results of the campaign and thrilled with the extra in-market exposure that the NT has gained through our partnership with WAYN. Our objective was to raise the general profile of the NT as well as to highlight some of the many unique experiences that it has to offer. This objective was met with a very high number of visits to and downloads from the site by WAYN members. We found WAYN’s ideas and initiatives inspiring and especially liked the interactivity of the site which allowed visitors to exchange experiences of the NT, give travel tips, rate photo’s, watch videos and download items to their own profiles.”

 

WAYN.com enables clients to retain a presence amongst their 10 million members post-campaign, making it easier for future campaigns to build on their success. Tourism NT continues to enjoy the added extras of being part of the social network’s organic exposure to members through associated services such as the newsfeed, ratings comments, and ‘sharing’.
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