Fly Free to the Outback

An integrated campaign approach achieves maximum results.

  • Destination Representation
  • Consumer Advertising

Australia's Northern Territory

Situation

The overarching goal is to increase visitors, market share and yield from North American visitors. By outsourcing its North American operations to Myriad, Australia’s Northern Territory Tourist Commission reduced administrative costs to less than 15 percent of the total budget, allowing the majority of its funds to go toward marketing and PR campaigns. In 2018, Warner was tasked with creating a fully tactical sales campaign and deploying it through integrated strategies.

Action

For the “Fly Free to the Outback” concept, Warner negotiated a cooperative campaign between the Northern Territory and Qantas Airways. Consumers booking through one of our five distribution partners on Qantas received free flights to the Outback from gateway cities. This integrated marketing campaign consisted of public relations activities, travel endemic digital advertising, radio broadcast, search engine marketing and social media activities.

Results

While the “Fly Free to the Outback” campaign was designed as a tactical sale, this newsworthy deal went viral. It achieved $13 million in estimated ad value from PR hits, with 108 million earned impressions from outlets including Business Insider, The Los Angeles Times (print and online), Lonely Planet, Thrillist, Uproxx, Matador Network, SmarterTravel, Travel + Leisure and AFAR.