Visit Sunshine Coast ramps up marketing push after appointing BCM to creative and media accounts
Visit Sunshine Coast is ramping up its marketing efforts once again, this time with an out-of-home and social campaign that highlights the ‘real’ culture, nature, people and experiences that make the region unique.
The ‘For Real’ campaign targets residents of Queensland to encourage intrastate tourism, and will later expand to target other states as boarder restrictions change.
The campaign was created by BCM, which recently won the creative and media accounts after a competitive pitch.
Ten-second social videos and digital billboards will highlight quintessential Sunshine Coast attractions including Coolum Beach, Kondalilla National Park and Mudjimba Beach. Visit Sunshine Coast has also engaged a range of tourism operators to launch the ‘real deal’ initiative, which will encourage visitation to the area outside of the school holidays.
Visit Sunshine Coast’s interim CEO, Craig Davidson, said the campaign will support the region’s tourism industry as it recovers.
“Whether its swimming with humpback whales as they migrate their way up north with Sunreef Mooloolaba or taking on one of Australia’s highest ropes courses at the TreeTop Challenge, the Sunshine Coast offers tremendous authenticity,” he said.
“It is where the natural environment meets innovative and respectful thinking – and our people are the crucial ingredient that makes the Sunshine Coast such an attractive destination for all markets.
“Undoubtedly the Sunshine Coast has had a reputation for its premium beach and nature-based environment, and today there is even greater desire for uncrowded beaches, wide-open spaces and a genuine respect for nature, which is reflected in this campaign.”
Leading into the campaign’s launch, the tourism body sent a message to the passengers on board Qantas’ Great Southern Land scenic flight of Australia, writing ‘visit us for real’ in the sand of Coolum Beach.
Davidson added that the opening of flights from Adelaide and Cairns has already made an impact.
“Already we have seen outstanding results from the launch of new direct air services from Cairns and the resumption of flights from Adelaide, but clearly many of our operators have suffered as a result of the loss of key markets such as NSW, Victoria and New Zealand,” he said.
“Fortunately we switched very early to targeting the local drive market – with considerable success – but the launch of this new campaign signals the start of a much wider promotional effort.”
BCM managing director and partner, Phil McDonald, added: “This region is close to our hearts at BCM, so it is a real privilege to work with Craig and the marketing team at VSC to help bring their new positioning to life.
“Our model of digital and performance media working hand in hand with optimised creative and production means this campaign is as ‘real time’ as it gets. We thank the team at VSC for putting their trust in us.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Visit Sunshine Coast has launched several marketing initiatives. The first was an online guessing game, asking Queensland residents to guess the origins of sounds from the beaches, everglades and hinterland in the region.
This was followed up in July by a campaign video that celebrated key tourist attraction, The Big Pineapple, by showing tourism operators hand-balling a pineapple to one another throughout the Sunshine Coast.
