Tourism Australia Encourages U.S. Travelers to Discover and Book Their Australian Adventure

When booking travel, the heart tends to lead the head. Our readers are likely familiar with our Multi-National Travel Trends study, which shows that activities and experiences are what drives us to make travel decisions, more so than deals and special offers.

This theme was discussed yesterday at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit in Sydney, where we presented these findings to an audience of travel experts from across the Asia Pacific region. During the session we also had the pleasure of introducing a new campaign with Tourism Australia, which perfectly illustrates how experiences can inspire and influence booking behavior.

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An Australian Adventure is designed to capitalize on the momentum of Tourism Australia’s highly successful Dundee Super Bowl commercial and teaser trailers that re-introduced American travelers to the wonders of Australia. This new digital marketing campaign reaches the vast Expedia.com audience of travelers in the U.S. to continue to amplify awareness of Australia travel opportunities, and ultimately drive bookings.

As Lisa Ronson, Chief Marketing Officer at Tourism Australia shared the following about the campaign: “The Dundee teasers and the Super Bowl ad were all about grabbing America’s attention and creating a platform to capture the conversion opportunity for destination Australia. Online travel agencies play a key part in the U.S. consumer’s travel journey, from research and planning through to booking, and Expedia Group has the largest share. With their reach, distribution platform and ability to target, they have exactly the conversion tools we need to capitalize on Dundee and now translate the incredible awareness and interest we’ve generated into high yielding holiday bookings.”

Developed by our in-house creative agency, our Creative Partnerships team, this “Choose Your Own Travel Adventure” style online campaign uses a mix of dynamic content, videos, imagery and destination information to showcase Australia’s unique landmarks and landscape, from the outback wilderness of the Northern Territories to Melbourne’s café-culture.

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Visitors to a dedicated microsite simply answer a few simple questions – around trip duration, traveler type, ideal trip type, and interests – to receive a range of tailored destination recommendations and suggested itineraries for their perfect trip to Australia. These itineraries are accompanied by breath-taking video and imagery, along with helpful tips and information, all designed to showcase unique Australian experiences that bring the various destinations to life.

You can view the campaign for yourself here, or take a look at more of our recent campaigns here.

Hari Nair

SVP & GM Account Management, Expedia Group

Hari is the SVP & GM Account Management with Expedia Group. Previously, Hari was the senior vice president of Expedia Group Media Solutions, the digital advertising arm of Expedia Group for four years. In that role, Hari Nair oversaw all facets of the business globally including product development and execution, engineering, operations, marketing, media sales and business development. Prior to that role, Hari was vice president and general manager of Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com, responsible for overseeing retail operations and profitability of the business, brand strategy, marketing efficiency, and customer lifecycle management. Hari joined Expedia Group in 2002, and has managed and led market management operations in a variety of offices, including Dallas, New York and London. He also oversaw the company’s hotel supplier relations and directed lodging strategy and business for North America. Prior to joining Expedia, Hari worked in corporate training and food and beverage operations at Oberoi Hotels, a leading luxury hotel chain that owns and manages thirty hotels and five luxury cruisers across six countries under the ‘Oberoi’ & ‘Trident’ brands. Hari holds a master’s degree in Hotel Management from Cornell University.

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