Australia's missed opportunity with Lonely Planet content partnership

An alternative view of the "There's Nothing Like..." campaign

As Australian Tourism numbers  keep plummeting, both domestic and international, the Australian Tourism Body needs to be inventive and creative in their marketing.

What better way to do this than use their brand to work with one of the coolest travel brands on the globe, Lonely Planet, to leverage their content in a mutually beneficial partnership marketing campaign.

To accentuate the “only in Australia” selling point as part of the “There’s Nothing Like Australia” campaign Tourism Australia are utilizing Lonely Planet’s unique content to promote visiting Australia.

Lonely Planet have produced five video vignettes, starring travel writer John Vlahides, in which he explores Australia and interacts with locals and uncovers the best “only Australia” experiences. These videos showcase the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney and the Blue Mountains, Tasmania’s Bruny Island, South Australia’s Kangaroo Island and Uluru (which you may still know as Ayers Rock).

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/competitions/visitaustralia/kangaroo-island.php

Lonely Planet and the BBC.com are featuring these on line (www.lonelyplanet.com/visitaustralia) and across BBC America programming including Top Gear and Planet Earth presumably to target the British target audience living in America. The targeting is strange since the UK is the number one travelling consumer group to Australia followed by Asian countries, the first only because of tradition/relatives and they are decreasing. , while Asians are increasing in number.

Only in Australia?

American’s are very lowdown on the list so why target them and not spend more money in Asia which is nearer and often on the same time zone (Singapore and Perth for example are only 4 hours apart but on the same time zone…)? Makes little commercial sense.

There will also be a sweepstake to win $1k of Lonely Planet books which looks more like at after thought. Why not create partnerships with airlines and hotels to offer some great deals and run competitions to capture the beauty of Australia as well as collect data to mine with offers later?

Lonely Planet is a great brand partner and as it was founded in Australia 40 years ago has indepth, detailed and off the beaten track knowledge of the best places to visit in Australia (although I wouldn’t say Uluru, Sydney or the Great Barrier Reef are off the beaten track as they are as mainstream tourist attractions as it’s possible to get).

Couldn’t Lonely Planet have been asked to come up with some real hidden gems instead and aim at repeat visitors as well as creating awareness of the variety of the Australian attractions? After all everyone knows about Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef). It’s easier to get an traveler to come again than entice a new one after all, customer retention works in travel just like it does at your local supermarket,

Tourism Australia will have to go some to gain the kind of coverage in the US that an alternative take on “there’s nothing like Australia” had with less flattering images…….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1263008/Theres-like-dingo-taking-baby-Australian-tourism-chiefs-fury-U-S-website-mocks-new-ad-campaign.html