The Next Big Thing.
Reminding Australia who the OG of Aussie travel was, by helping the country build a new Big Thing, voted in by the country itself.
The travel landscape has changed drastically over the 18 years Wotif has been knocking about. As the first online travel company in Australia, Wotif's superior experience at local travel had been clouded by the rise of the share economy and an increasingly saturated market. We needed to remind everyone Wotif was the OG of Aussie travel.
Nothing is more iconic to Aussie travel than Big Things. The Big Banana, the Big Prawn, the giant fibreglass roadside personalities that quietly hold Australian road-trip culture together. So instead of celebrating them, we let Australia build a new one.
We ran a national vote for the Next Big Thing. The Big Bin Chicken in Binnaburra? The Big Budgie in Smugglers Cove? Australia decided. We mocked up the best suggestions with travel influencers, and the country responded in droves on the competition site and social. While Aussies voted, local councils and tourism boards rallied groundswell support from their own communities, prepping them for their new Big neighbour. The Big Melon won, in Chinchilla, QLD, population ~6,000. We worked with Australia's finest Big Thing craftsmen to install a 6-metre Melon on the town's main road.
Over 200M earned media reach. Over 2,000 articles, local and international. 5.8M Facebook reach. 23,000 Aussies voted in the shortlist phase, equivalent to 70% of the population of the shortlisted towns. Campaign awareness lift +13.6 points, ad recall +8.9, top-of-mind brand awareness +3.9, all outperforming vertical and regional Facebook Brand Lift norms.