Tourism Western Australia has appointed an east coast agency to handle the online component of the state’s advertising campaign.
Tourism Western Australia has appointed an east coast agency to handle the online component of the state’s advertising campaign.
The appointment of Sydney-based agency Soap Creative to conduct the digital creative component of the business came despite the recent Australian Market Social Research Society National Research Effectiveness Award win for the state’s ‘The Real Thing’ campaign.
WA’s biggest agency, Marketforce, was behind the campaign and remains with the account on the offline business.
Tourism Western Australia CEO Richard Muirhead touted the success of the campaign, which Sydney-based research and analysis group TNS said added 33,000 visitors to WA who spent $81 million.
But Mr Muirhead said an eastern states agency would be better placed to capture the attention of the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne, which represent the bulk of WA’s visitors.
“We have adopted an online environment because we don’t have the spending to deliver a large branding campaign [throughout the world],” he said.
“It is also difficult for advertising agencies to be able to capture both digital and offline marketing campaigns, so that is why we chose two agencies.”
Tourism numbers have stagnated in the past year or so.
International Visitor Survey results indicate a slight decline in international visitor numbers to Western Australia for the year ending June 2006 of 1.2 per cent to 621,200, while the number of nights stayed in Western Australia fell 0.1 per cent to 15.5 million nights for the same period.
While numbers are down, the state still recorded a 6.6 per cent increase in spending by international visitors, who spent $1.228 billion, which was an all-time high for expenditure in WA and sits above the three year average of $1.1 million.
On a country-by-country basis the results were mixed, with a fall off in tourists from Malaysia (down 17.3 per cent), Japan (down 13 per cent) and South Africa (down 12 per cent).
“We were happy with the figures from the United Kingdom (up 2.3 per cent),” Mr Muirhead said.
“However, there was a decline in New Zealand (down 14 per cent) which is coming off the back of 50 per cent growth in 2005.
“We are confident that this market will remain alright. New Zealand alongside the United Kingdom is where we do proper brand campaigns and where we continue to be strong.
“The positive news came from China and Korea, which had grown 18 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. We are still at a low base but we are at least growing.”
Mr Muirhead said one of the major issues facing Western Australian tourism was the increase in competition from destinations in the region, including Thailand and Japan.
‘The Real Thing’ brand campaign for WA was run in 2004, launched initially in the Australian market, followed by the UK and New Zealand markets. It recently won the inaugural National Award for Contribution to Communi-cations Strategy Effectiveness.
“Going forward we need to do some tweaking of ‘The Real Thing’ campaign,” Mr Muirhead said.
“We have completed a new film shoot of Western Australia, but it will still have the same look and feel of the original campaign.”
He believed Western Australia needed to focus on delivering a good product through providing top accommodation and services rather than just depending on the nature-based product.
The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre has also revamped its marketing advisers, appointing a team led by advertising and design agency Razoreye Design to implement its new strategic plan.
