Is digital cheaper? And can you build a destination brand using digital?

Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Nick Baker, executive general manager-marketing, Tourism Australia the weekend before the new brand launch of 'Nothing Like Australia'.

Q: Is it cheaper to build a digitally-based campaign?

No. That's one of the myths. It's not necessarily cheaper but it allows you to have meaningful conversations with more people in more channels. You still have to shoot films for the best quality. Our director of the new commercial is Michael Gracey, who shot two of the biggest downloadable ads on the Internet.
It doesn't make production cheaper but it allows for cheaper delivery.

Q: AirAsia said that for a specific campaign to sell seats, it was able to use its Facebook fan page and save loads on advertising.

For transaction-based outcomes, you can lower your cost base considerably. What I would say though is, maybe they'd have to do it more often now because everyone's doing it – so you might have a multiplier effect on costs.

Q: There are some who say you can't build a brand using digital?

I disagree. It depends on the products of course. If it's a very high-touch product like a Louis Vuitton bag, which is tactile and high-sensory, it's harder which is why you haven't seen a lot of the luxury brands doing a lot digitally.

For a destination brand, it's possible. But if you ask me could we do it exclusively digitally, no – but we are getting ever closer to that. You are seeing more weight and resources being put into the digital space. Our new campaign is split 50/50 in terms of the production, which is a long way from what it was before.

Q: You new brand assumes all your customers are wired?

Yes, there's a lot of research out there that says people are using the web exhaustively for travelling planning and searching, using reference points built around what people are saying.

Our campaign is based on search around social media – that's the biggest difference – and with so much user generated content, it will help us rise in search engine rankings.

Q: Your new mapping tool that is supposed to help travellers plan their trips – you're also assuming the infrastructure in Australia is going to be good enough to allow travellers to get online while they're on the road? I was at a winery yesterday in Adelaide Hills and asked if I could go onto their wireless network and they told me no. So travellers are going to have to pay expensive roaming charges to use your planning tools?

Costs of roaming is something we can't control. We will enable you to download widgets and applications that will allow you to plan your trips pre-arrival. We will work on the second generation tools that will allow on-the-road experiences. We don't live in a completely accessible world – but we are building for the future.

Q: Do you think it's time destinations build their brands around interests rather than attaching taglines to their destination?

There are more people travelling for passions and interests but you still need an overall brand for the country. That's integral. Even more important is unity in branding and one key measurement of success for this new campaign is how many operators get behind it.

Q: In using social media to build your brand, are you surrendering to the wisdom of the crowd?

You have to give up something to get relevance. By connecting to people whether through comments or open source, you do surrender something but then you build something that's ubiquituous. And utility is important. "Nothing Like Australia" is not fully user generated content, it's user assisted content and we are allowing people to share their passion for Australia and connecting advocates.

Q: Was this campaign inspired by Tourism Queensland's "Best Job In The World" exercise?

No. This was our own idea and it builds on a key attribute of Australia – its friendly people. The competition is only a small part of the campaign. We kept it very simple – it took people 4.5 minutes to submit their entry. It was a simple process, simple message.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com. Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at the cafe for travel insiders.

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