Shortlisted 2020

Travel and Tourism

Brand

Tourism Australia

Entered by:

UM Australia

Credits:

From Country To Company

The Challenge

In recent years there has been a decline in Working Holiday Visa applications. Once, a rite of passage for backpacking European youth was losing its appeal. We needed to;

  1. Raise consideration of taking an Australian Working Holiday. (+2%)
  2. Increase arrivals of Working Holiday Visa’s (+2%)
  3. Hand-off 11,000 partner leads to book travel Down Under Our challenge?

Bring back the ‘gap’ year Down Under.

The Creative Solution

We conducted in-market research across UK, Germany (DE) and France (FR) to understand what was holding back Working Holiday Makers from planning a working holiday 14,000 miles away.

Unsurprisingly, youth around the world are experiencing challenging times. Economic instability and political unrest flood their newsfeeds. The pressures to succeed within tough times only intensifies in the age of technology entrepreneurs and social media celebrities.

This lack of confidence was impacting day to day decisions. European youth were meticulously building their credentials for the future. This presented its own problem.

The name of a working holiday itself. A ‘gap’ year.

This colloquial turn of phrase was the problem. A ‘gap’ suggested a gap on your CV. A lack of direction, focus or a career break. Right across Europe, a ‘gap’ year was becoming a risk our target wasn’t willing to take.

What if we could transform the perception of an Australian Working Holiday from a frivolous way to fall behind to a valuable opportunity to get ahead? Show the world that Australia was at the forefront of innovation, rich with opportunity and the only place to find true life experiences that sets you apart from the crowd?

Simple.

Turn Australia the country; into Australia the company.

A company with over 120,000 positions vacant – at over 10,000 offices. The best holiday place in the world, would become the hottest tech start-up in the world.

The Media/Content Amplification Solution

Australia Inc.

 A company any CV would be proud to display, that any employer would be desperate to hire from.

To compete with dependable career paths, we needed to show WHM’s we could offer something compelling . Australia Inc. was the next hot Tech start up.

Execution:

 The campaign was built from all the tropes of technology, start-ups and Silicon Valley companies , complete with a very public and boisterous CEO, tours of the office and Q&A’s for prospective employees .

Media plans were built to mimic tactics, channels and language associated with job recruitment. Highlighting workplace experiences, training and perks that European businesses could only dream of.

Australia Inc. was introduced through the ‘CEO’. Dynamic video executions highlighting the pressures facing each market and referencing their specific life stage moments; leaving school , university or breaks within their chosen careers.

To build confidence at scale and normalise the behaviour of taking a working holiday to further your career, we partnered with Europe’s largest youth publishers; VICE and BuzzFeed . Surfacing credible youth voices and real WHM stories to reinforce the reality of joining Australia Inc.

Together we showcased the depth of experiences on offer, via compelling stories from previous working holiday makers, and how their Australian experience helped them get ahead. Examples of the content produced included : ‘Build your confidence on a working holiday in Tasmania’ and ‘I came to Australia as an office assistance and left as a journalist’.

Underneath these brand and consideration layers, a sophisticated precision delivery plan was developed . Delivering bite sized content built for short attention spans. Focused on a single message, targeting a specific  barrier or question, such as ‘Job Interviews’ and ‘Wages’. Everything designed specifically to  close the gap in knowledge and increase desire to take a working holiday.

A sequential messaging approach was employed across audience pools and interactivity in the social formats allowed for deeper engagement with other content , and retargeting assets .

The Result

Our inboxes were overflowing. The reception full. Australia Inc. was the hottest company in Eu rope.

Our campaign reached over 18.5 million on target prospects driving total video views of 35 million, 142% above planned delivery. This drove over 480,000 prospects to find out more about Working Holidays in Australia on site, 116% above KPI.

Australia Inc. repositioned the humble gap year from a year out to a year up:

  1. Of all people who were impacted by our campaign , consideration increased +3%. An increase of over 555,000

What’s more – of those who recalled seeing the campaign – 36% stated their intention to plan a working holiday in the next 12 months . 68% of these already stating they had acted .

  1. These claims were clear to see with arrivals of Working Holiday Visa’s showing strong growth in every market , a total YOY increase of 4%. Double our objectives and inserting over A$3.3 billion into the Australian economy.
  1. And when it came to our partners, we generated a total of 17,536 leads to our booking partners, 160% above our booking partners, 160% above our target.