WOTIF’s NEXT BIG THING

MY ROLE

  • Brand Platform Development

  • Strategic Development

  • Account Leadership

  • Communications Planning

  • Creative Guidance

  • Team Guidance & Troubleshooting

  • Agency Village Leadership

  • Unfortunately, I didn’t get to paint the watermelon myself

THE PROBLEM

The travel landscape has changed drastically over the 18 years Wotif has been knocking about. Having being the first online travel company, the rise of share economy and an increasingly saturated market has clouded our otherwise superior experience at local travel.

WHAT WE DID

To remind our audience who the OG for Aussie travel is, we wanted to make something iconic. And there’s nothing more iconic to Aussie travel than Big Things. So, with Australia’s help, we made one.

Would it be the Big Bin Chicken in Binnaburra? Or the Big Budgie in Smugglers Cove? It was totally up to Australia and boy did they have something to say about it, responding in droves on our competition website and social channels. We even mocked up some of the best suggestions from some of our audience and our favourite travel influencers to give them a taste of how their Big Thing might look IRL.

Next, we got Aussies to vote. And vote they did. 23,000 times to be exact. But while every man and his dog were voting, local councils and tourism boards rallied groundswell support from their own communities, prepping them for their new, Big neighbour.

Finally - we revealed the winner - The Big Melon in Chinchilla. Working with some of Australia’s finest Big Thing craftsmen, a 6-metre Melon assumed its position on the main road of Chinchilla, a town of about 6,000 melon-loving folks in rural Queensland.

HOW IT PERFORMED

  • EARNED MEDIA REACH: Over 200 million

  • LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ARTICLES: Over 2,000

  • FACEBOOK REACH: 5.8 million

  • CAMPAIGN AWARENESS LIFT*: 13.6 point

  • AD RECALL LIFT*: 8.9 point

  • TOP OF MIND BRAND AWARENESS LIFT*: 3.9 point (*Outperformed vertical and regional norms across campaign awareness (Source: Facebook Brand Lift Study))

  • BRAND AFFINITY: Consumer voting in shortlist phase was equivalent to 70% of the population of the shortlisted towns (over 23,000 votes).