Atomic 212 uses Top End Wedding to increase NT tourism by 12%
Atomic 212 has leveraged local movie Top End Wedding, starring Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler, to develop a media campaign that increased tourism to the Northern Territory by 12% year on year, the agency said.
The campaign for client Tourism NT included a collaboration with the Nine Network centred on the ‘Win A Top End Wedding’ competition across Today, Married at First Sight, 9Honey and other media brands, generating a 12x return on investment.
Executed in three bursts from February to July, the campaign resulted in 136,000 visits to Tourism NT’s website and 13,000 competition entrants. In a first for the client, Atomic worked with Tourism NT’s marketing and digital teams to develop a responsive landing page on the brand’s website, changing priority content as users moved through the sales funnel.
“The brief we gave Atomic 212 was challenging and called for innovative and strategic creative and media thinking to deliver the results we wanted,” Tourism NT executive general manager marketing, Tony Quarmby, said.
“The agency took the Top End Wedding movie and built a clever, engaging and fun campaign around it, covering different channels and media. The response from consumers was great and we’re very happy with the results.”
Atomic’s chairperson, Barry O’Brien, added that the campaign exceeded a number of objectives.
“The campaign had a number of objectives, including shifting perceptions and increasing awareness of the Northern Territory, driving intention to visit, launching Locations Scouts and building engagement with that content,” O’Brien said.
“Thanks to the great work by some very talented people at Tourism NT and Atomic 212, and our partners at Nine, we reached and exceeded all those objectives.
“Overall domestic holiday visitation to the Northern Territory increased 12% year on year in March 2019. The Top End Wedding campaign has helped create that momentum, driving strong advertising awareness and contributing to positive shifts across all brand attributes.”
Atomic 212 was reappointed to the NT government media account, including the tourism body, earlier this year.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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Yes, I’m going to be *that* person. Why? Because while headlines are good, so is rigour. And it seems to be absent in this case.
It might come down to wording in the above release, but it reads like the campaign itself drove the lift; but how do they know it’s not partly due to the movie release itself, and the resulting PR etc around the movie and Tapsell? Was that effect stripped out?
There’s also a discrepancy around dates: three bursts running between Feb & July it states, yet the stated result of domestic visitation rising by 12% was for one month (March)… I thought cherry-picking was a job for backpackers in Qld, not the agency looking after the NT.
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I loved Top End Wedding and believe this is a great piece of work produced by TNT / Atomic and Nine – a true reflection of strong partnership!
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I wonder if “astroturfing” is a category in Hipages.
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A very interesting read! The NT is an absolute Gem of the Australian landscape with an amazing community of people. It’s a pleasure to read such of such robust and well thought integrated marketing ideas enhanced by strong agency and client collaboration. Well done to all involved. The agency were definitely successful in leveraging existing content to build a strong campaign foundation to drive client value.
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Yeah these figures have a certain stink to them… Take a look at the National Visitor Survey and you’ll see there is nothing remarkable about NT’s performance. The growth is solid, and in line with growth across the country, but I’d not be claiming the growth was a result of the campaign
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I also love using abbreviations for close pals I work with on my projects – like ‘TNT’ for Tourism Northern Territory. It doesn’t give away that I’m connected to the project at all when I comment in public forums.
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Where were these additional tourists? I’m sitting here in Darwin where the operators report the worst dry season in living memory. More bushes closing and going out of business. More restaurants closing. Less fishing charters. Less bus tours. Much lower real world numbers in Darwin, Katherine and Litchfield. The worst numbers in Kakadu in memory. They were actually discounting accommodation in the peak season. Yet this [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] is claiming a success? I don’t smell a rat. There’s a tsunami of them [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] who themselves openly admit that this season was a major flop. A movie that was fun and cute, but that barely anyone in the world saw did not increase tourism. But there are those in this agency in Sydney and in government in Darwin who are writing some very creative media releases lately.
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It’s not like Atomic 212 have a history of faking results, client work, or agency of the year submissions.
https://mumbrella.com.au/jason-dooris-atomic-212-awards-investigation-488716
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