Western Australia's first online marketing campaigns in Japan and Korea have been launched.
Western Australia's first online marketing campaigns in Japan and Korea have been launched.
Tourism Minister Sheila McHale said the campaigns aimed to boost awareness of WA destinations in the two highly important travel markets.
"The Japanese and Korean markets are keen to experience cultures totally different to their own and are seeking authentic, local experiences," Ms McHale said.
"These online campaigns are an exciting and highly cost-effective way to make our presence known and match in well with our 'Real Australia' branding."
The Minister said in Japan, the target audience was mainly female, primarily aged 20 to
39 years, while in Korea, sights were set mainly on 18 to 34-year-olds.
"The Japanese and Korean campaigns use interactive websites where people can create their own WA holiday by placing animated characters into WA holiday scenes," Ms McHale said.
"People can upload photographs of themselves and superimpose them on to the characters and even refer their friends to the site - multiplying the effectiveness."
The Minister said for the first time, Tourism Western Australia would also use 3G mobile phone technology in Japan to boost the referral component.
The campaign is being promoted via major websites like @woman (Japan's number two female portal website) and mixi (a popular portal targeting urban adults) as well as search engines including Yahoo! Japan, MSN and Nikkei Net.
"The level of exposure in Japan is phenomenal, with the online advertisement being shown more than 127 million times and being emailed to 500,000 @woman members," Ms McHale said.
In Korea, the campaign is being promoted on the country's number one website, Naver, as well as its number one news website, Joins, plus a range of search engine websites that reach 96 per cent of Internet users in Korea, including Yahoo! Korea, Daum, Nate and MSN.
The level of exposure is significant, with online advertisements being shown more than 44 million times, and being emailed to more than 200,000 members of Job Korea.
