The South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) came up with a strategy to capture local travellers’ attention by pushing the boundaries of traditional destination advertising. Brent Hill, SATC’s executive director of marketing, shares how the government agency promoted its unprecedented 120-hour live stream tour showcasing South Australia as a richly diverse holiday destination for all Aussies.
From the rugged outback and crystal-clear waters to top-class wine regions and vibrant cities, South Australia has something to satisfy every traveller’s wanderlust. Our main goal is to share the state’s wonders with Aussies all over the country in the most engaging way. As we explored ways to reach as many Aussies as possible, our media agency, Wavemaker, helped us see that 80% of Aussie travellers typically go online to research and book their flights. And once they were on the web, Aussies were spending more and more time on YouTube as they planned their dream vacations.
So, in partnership with our creative agency, TWBA, we filmed a 120-hour live streaming journey through South Australia last October as part of our State of Wonder initiative. To reach Aussies when they visited YouTube, we teamed up with Google to promote the live stream on the platform and pique travellers’ curiosity in the rare wonders South Australia has to offer.
Attracting Aussie travellers with the first live-stream YouTube Masthead
YouTube’s Masthead format initially caught our attention as a way to reach as many Aussie travellers as possible. For the first 24 hours of the campaign, we ran a live stream Masthead that displayed our journey through the state. Then, we shared the rest of our adventures in real time on our YouTube channel, including koala spotting at Mikkira Station, swimming with sea lions at the Baird Bay, and enjoying decadent wines at Adelaide Hills. Once our live stream ended, we launched a series of TrueView ads to keep Aussies’ interest and encouraged viewers who’d watched travel content to visit South Australia’s tourism website.
Capturing travellers’ attention on YouTube drives results
By the end of the campaign, our live stream Masthead and TrueView ads had captured 27 million and 551,000 views, respectively. Leads to South Australian tourism operators jumped by 96%, and website traffic increased by 33%. Overall, our campaign creative achieved an average watch time of 7.7 minutes, which shows that Aussie travellers enjoyed watching our grand adventure through the state as much as we loved filming it.
Online video unlocked a new way of inspiring travellers from all over the country to visit South Australia. Our TrueView ads helped us focus on engaging travel-loving Aussies, while our Masthead made sure we got even more eyes on our breathtaking footage. To make an impact in a crowded online space, it’s important to present travellers with engaging, fresh creative. We’re looking forward to showcasing even more of South Australia’s wonders with immersive YouTube content that’s just as bold as our audience.
