We’ve received feedback from some members that they’d like to know more about how we’re marketing the destination. In general, our activity falls into the following categories:
- Public relations
- Social media
- Content marketing via margaretriver.com
- Campaigns
- Electronic Direct Mail (EDM’s)
- Event partnerships
We thought we’d start sharing some of our marketing highlights monthly and also some digital insights that might help you plan your marketing activity. We’ll aim to keep these brief and informative. Please feel free to share any feedback via [email protected]
Public Relations
Airline Announcement
MRBTA worked with Jetstar, City of Busselton, Tourism WA & Australia’s South West on the announcement of the direct flights from Melbourne to Busselton. This included an industry and local media announcement at Railway House and a media launch in Melbourne. MRBTA and ASW coordinated the gift bags, wine, imagery and talent for the event and our East Coast Public Relations Representative Sarah Turnbull was on the ground to build relations with media and answer any questions they had about the region.
An outcome of our media outreach has resulted in securing a Weekend Sunrise Weather Cross in Busselton this weekend on Sunday 10 October – be sure to tune in!
MRBTA also kicked off a digital campaign encouraging Melbournians to Rediscover Margaret River via EDM, social media and margaretriver.com
To read more about airline readiness check out the following articles:
Airline update: view the Airline Information Session Presentations | Register for Future Sessions
Singapore Influencer Famil
Hosted Singaporean Singer and Actress Tay Kewei and her family for a 5 night stay in partnership with Australia’s South West and Luxury Escapes. The famil follows on from the International Wine Tourism partnership with Luxury Escapes for Margaret River on Tour. With Kewei, the Chief Luxury Officer for Luxury Escapes Asia, Kewei will experience three different Luxury Escapes holidays through the year and share her feedback on these as a discerning luxury traveller and also help avid travellers in Asia discover Luxury Escapes to her social media following.
Singaporean Influencer Kewei Tay enjoys a family picnic at Happs Winery.
Social media
Your Margaret River Region’s social channels received 1,692 new followers over the month of October.
The most engaging media shows that visitors are loving the sapphire blue hues of our coastline and that a kangaroo photobomb is always a winner!
New IGTV series ‘Saltwater Stories’
It’s well known that video is a high performer when it comes to social media engagement. Do a quick google search and you’ll see stats like:
- Viewers are 2x more likely to tell others about a video they have seen online versus image or text posts
- 25% of people made a purchase immediately after watching a video online
IGTV provides an opportunity for businesses to play more in this space and Your Margaret River Region is jumping on the bandwagon. Our first series ‘Saltwater Stories’ aims to capture the personalities of the region in picturesque locations in a fun, relatively informal style. We’re looking for people that capture our brand’s tone of voice: creative, laid back, sociable, adventurous, diverse, authentic. As the name suggests this series will focus on the coastal lifestyle the Margaret River region is so well known for.
Thanks to Sean Blocksidge for being the first cab off the rank and for sharing the video with his 27K strong audience.
If you’d like to suggest someone for us to profile, please email [email protected]
Margaretriver.com
86K users
Top countries: Australia, US, Singapore
Top cities: Perth, Melbourne, Sydney
2 new itineraries published:
Melbourne to Margaret River: 4 Day Escape and Connect
Melbourne to Margaret River: 7 Day Itinerary
6 new blogs:
How to: Teaching Your Groms to Surf
A Gastronomical Festival of Food and Wine
Understanding the Vines with Vanya Cullen
A few ideas to help you share these stories with your audience:
- Share via social media
- Add a link on your booking confirmations
- Include in your EDM’s
EDM’s
Event Partnerships
This month we provided event partnership support to:
- Cape to Cape MTB
- Strings Attached: new to the festival calendar this year. Early reports on this unique 3 day festival for players, makers and enthusiasts saw fantastic numbers with almost 8,000 total event attendees.
What’s Coming Up?
- Filming for an exciting national/international broadcast television series that will also feature on Channel 10, Qantas Inflight and Netflix
- The summer content plan will roll out as of 1 December. The deadline for inclusion is 30 November. If you’d you like to be involved please contact [email protected]
- A brand new regional image gallery for members to access and share with media and industry
- The summer magazine is due out next month and we’re currently seeking story ideas for the autumn edition (can you believe it?). Send your ideas through to [email protected]