TNE Activity Report – Mansfield Shire Council 2018-19 Q4 1. Introduction Tourism North East (TNE) is the regional tourism board for the High Country, charged with developing a broad range of supply and demand driven tourism initiatives that deliver strong outcomes to the local visitor economy. It operates across the key areas of regional marketing, industry development, infrastructure and product development, strategic planning, advocacy and research, and works collaboratively with a range of stakeholders to drive visitation, yield and dispersal throughout the High Country. At the end of each quarter, TNE produces a report that provides an overview of all the regional activities that Mansfield Shire Council invests in, and key deliverables within that period. Following is the report for the fourth quarter, which also acts as a wrap-up for the 2018/19 financial year. Highlights for the year have included having nearly $2 million worth of marketing presence in association with cycle, walk, wine, beer and snow campaigns; the completion of major projects like walk consumer segmentation research, agritourism research and mapping project and a Human Capital Review; and the commencement of major projects like the Lake Eildon Masterplan and Great Victorian Rail Trail Strategic Development Plan. The visitation statistics for the year ending December 2018 show that the High Country has reached a record tourism high, attracting 3.92 million visitors who generate $1.207 billion in spend. This represents a 15% growth in visitation and 19% growth in spend since the same time the previous year, which is 10% higher on both counts than the State average - a great achievement for the region that is reflective of collective tourism efforts. 2. Ride High Country 2.1 Campaign Overview and Funding The North East Victoria Cycling Optimisation (NEVCO) Masterplan identifies a range of priority projects that offer the greatest cycle tourism growth opportunities for the region, defining the infrastructure, private sector activation and marketing required to achieve a leadership position in this space. Of all of the priority projects identified in the Masterplan, investment in a marketing campaign of scale was determined to deliver the greatest impact on the visitor economy, with the potential to attract an additional 99k visitors to the region who will spend $37million per annum. This recommendation was supported by a significant body of market research that was undertaken as part of the Masterplan process. This research identified that one of the primary issues inhibiting cycle tourism growth in the region is lack of awareness of the High Country bike offering. A lack of consumer awareness points to the need for sustained investment in a marketing campaign of scale – one that has the ability to move current and potential market segments from awareness through to inspiration and finally conversion – to generate cycle- related visitation and yield opportunities for the region. Recognising the need for marketing investment, $4 million from State Government has been committed to the delivery of a four-year marketing campaign that looks to capitalise on the clear and identified latent demand that exists for the High Country’s cycle tourism offering. Delivered by TNE, the program is led by the region’s ‘Ride High Country’ cycle tourism master-brand that launched in October 2018 at the start of the region’s cycle season, and has now come to a close. The delivery of a highly targeted and integrated marketing campaign of this scale supports the region in its aspiration to own the cycle tourism category ahead of its competitors. It will effectively leverage the existing public and private sector investment that has already been made in the development of a broad range of cycle assets, and will create a platform for clear and competitive growth within the local visitor economy. 2.2 Above the Line As the campaign objective for years one and two of the Masterplan is to drive brand awareness, the primary focus of this year’s campaign was above the line (ATL) activity, incorporating a range of mass media channels to stimulate brand recall and recognition. Highly visual, promoting hero products and competitive differentiators, these channels showcase the High Country’s ride experiences as being the best in Victoria. This plan brings the entire cycle tourism destination offering to life, which is key for success in establishing the High Country as the leader in this space. The bulk of the budget was split between out of home (OOH), providing mass reach, and digital (display advertising plus videos on demand) which provided a highly targeted reach through cost effective channels. This was supported by content, marketing and PR partnerships across online and print publications - a lower cost opportunity that extended campaign reach and promoted trust within highly engaged cycling audiences. TNE continued to manage search engine marketing, social media and the ridehighcountry.com.au website. Utilising cost-effective, targeted and efficient channels, the campaign performed exceptionally well to drive awareness, and prompt engagement and consideration of Ride High Country. Working with nimble agencies with a rich understanding of the region provided a noteworthy level of bonus activity to amplify the paid campaign. The various above the line channels featured in the campaign were as follows: a) Out of Home (OOH) A total of 39 premium large and medium format billboards in geo-targeted high-traffic, high- impact locations were delivered in full throughout the campaign (October to May). Each location provided reach for a full lunar month. This was complemented with 10 ‘bus back’ placements servicing Eastern Melbourne between October and December 2018. All placements had unique artwork, fresh for this season, highlighting different High Country destinations including the Great Victorian Rail Trail and Buttercup Road in Mansfield. OOH, in addition to being a proven driver of brand awareness, provided the Ride High Country campaign exceptional value, delivering nearly $1million worth of bonus value. Bonus was delivered by three suppliers across short-term digital, large format and static placements. Overall the OOH campaign is estimated to have reached a staggering 83% of the target demographic - ‘people 25-54 years’ (residing in Melbourne) - on average 12.5 times. b) Melbourne Airport Takeover Between 24 December 2018 and 22 January 2019, a linked activation was hosted throughout the Qantas and Multi Airline Terminals that allowed Ride High Country to own the consumer journey from airport arrival through to departure, and again on arrival through to leaving the airport. Ride High Country had a dominant presence throughout the airport including nine individual video placements (some of which include multiple locations eg. all baggage carousels), plus a static OOH large format billboard on approach and another digital OOH medium format billboard on departure. New video was captured and edited specifically for this execution featuring 12 High Country riding destinations including Mansfield. The calibre of the creative assets produced were widely regarded by consumers and media teams alike. ‘ooh! Media’ delivered bonus placements across airport locations to the value of $560,000 across the activation period, which is reflective of the quality of the Ride High Country material provided. c) Digital Display Advertising and Video On Demand Targeted digital advertising on key cycling, news and entertainment sites, plus Video on Demand (VOD) channels achieved 3.4 million impressions over the campaign period, served primarily in Victoria plus a spend in NSW. The videos on VOD platforms were watched to completion over a million times (1,038,682) with an impressive average view rate of 92.31%. High impact Roadblock display activity with News Corp (targeting road, mountain biking and rail trail audiences) saw the highest click-through-rate (CTR), indicating that premium Australian sites and rich data are effective in the dual purposes of raising brand awareness as well as generating clicks to the site. Other top performers were nine.com.au and SBS, which both provided wide reach. Advertising within cycling verticals was also successful with SBS Cycling Central, FLOW Mountain Bike, Pinkbike (MTB) and Cycling Tips (road) all achieving higher CTRs than industry benchmarks. Video-on-demand placements are not normally expected to drive a high number of clicks, given that call to actions are not always accessible on all platforms (eg. Smart TVs). However, clicks from VOD placements, especially Nine, 10Play and SBS, have driven a similar number of users to site when compared to premium display placements. These results are a testament to the effectiveness of video advertising, especially with the rich visual creative and animations produced for this Ride High Country campaign period. In particular, YouTube was extremely cost efficient, with videos being watched 768k times at $0.05 a view, with an 80% Victorian audience weighting. d) Content Partnership TNE established partnerships with Australia’s premium online cycling publications, which provided exceptional value and has enabled Ride High Country to reach niche audiences with purpose-built content in the form of videos, editorial, promotion plus social media amplification. With industry experts telling the Ride High Country story in a genuine manner that resonates best with their individual audiences, the campaign was able to achieve a third party endorsement amongst audiences considering a cycling holiday. All of this content will now live on Australia’s best cycling and biking websites all year round, effectively extending the campaign’s lifetime. Additionally, TNE’s ongoing ownership of this professionally produced bespoke content will help drive future campaign efficiencies for creative production. Highlights included Cycling Tips piece titled ‘Beer, Coffee and Perfect Roads: our search for the High Country’s best-kept cycling secrets’ consisting of a video and editorial that will live in perpetuity on their ‘Adventure’ pages. The article was viewed more than 12k times with an average 3:35 spent engaging with the content.