Tourism Western Australia launches follow-on campaign to the Extraordinary Taxi Ride
Tourism Western Australia has released the follow-on campaign to this year’s epic Extraordinary Taxi Ride created by Host Sydney.
Launching four months after the world watched Doug Slater cross the finish line in his nine-week, 13,500km taxi journey, the next phase of the campaign sets to tell the stories and leverage the images and films from the journey that reached a potential global audience of 90 million.
Video cameras, stills photographers, blogs and diaries captured the raw emotion and reaction of the passengers in a vast array of WA’s destinations and experiences. Ads will be appearing in press, online, magazine, Qantas in-flight and cinema from mid October.
Launchingfirst on October 14 are a collection of 60-second cinema films, shotdocumentary-style, using narration from the passengers from various legs withinthe Extraordinary Taxi Ride to bring the experience to life. The films willalso be played on Q:TV airing on domestic Qantas flights this Summer and in May2011.
TourismWestern Australia CEO, Stephanie Buckland, said leveraging the raw emotion andreaction to some of Western Australia’s tourism experiences, destinations andattractions not only provides incredible scenery and captivating content, butalso serves as significant proof that Western Australian truly is the State toExperience Extraordinary.
“Furthermorethe focus on specific areas allows us to break the state into bite-sized piecesto make a holiday feel equally as feasible and achievable as it doesextraordinary,” Buckland said. “From the moment a snorkeller surfaces afterswimming with a whale shark, to the emotional reaction to the serene andghostly scene of the Gormley sculptures on Lake Ballard, our cinema films areincredibly powerful and are therefore spearheading this phase of the campaign,with impactful magazine and press insertions also further telling stories fromthe road.”
7 Comments
“incredibly powerful”? Really? Am I missing something?
Check out the shocking print work on CB WA. Obiously Host didn’t really wantvthat PRed.
When bad accounts happen to good agencies …
yeah true, the print’s not great but I actually love the TV. It’s unpretentious, filled with beautiful imagery and engaging. It’s rare to find advertising that feels as honest as these spots. Very nice work indeed.
“… potential global audience of 90 million”. Key word being “potential”.
I agree with 8.34. I now have a reason to go to WA which I didn’t have before. So good job.
I like it – more compelling than the usual tourism spots (Adelaide = doors, Melbourne = balls, Queensland = monkees).
Great choice of imagery for print, and unpretentious cinema spots that will look good on the big screen.
Well done Host.
The news that West Australia is spending millions on another advertising campaign to lure tourists to WA is indeed puzzling.
I worked as a tour guide in Western Australia for several years and noted the following:
Tourism business operators are only in it for the quick buck and they treat back-packers like they are cattle.
WA tourist operators do not seem to realise that all kinds of people choose to back-pack rather than take the luxury route. I had engineers, university lecturers, doctors . . . all on my tours but when they turn up to a reception at Karagini or to snorkel at Coral Bay (for example – although the attitude is everywhere) they are talked down to by the staff. Presumably on the assumption that since back-packers can’t afford ‘real’ accommodation they are not worth the time of day. These backpackers – who actually spend lots of money – go home and tell other people there are better places to visit than Western Australia.
Tour guides are given next-to-no training by WA tour operators. I specialised in outback travel but, when the company I was working for was short of guides, they sent me down the south-west. My introduction to this tour was via another guide who knew less than I did. And the next tour I was instructing somebody else. The passengers were understandably underwhelmed by the lack of ‘local knowledge’.
Tour guides are grossly under-paid and over-worked. It is not unusual to put in a 16 hour day as a tour guide or to drive over 1000ks in one day. For this I was paid well under $200 a day.
There is no career path for tour guides. Their knowledge and experience is not valued by the businesses. So if they tour guide wants more pay or regular hours their only option is to move into office work. (The whole idea of becoming a tour guide, of course, was to escape office work!)
I would suggest that if Western Australia really wanted tourists then they would stop blaming the high Australian dollar for declining tourist numbers and instead start training their staff properly and valuing the experience and knowledge of people who actually do know something about the amazing history and nature of this wonderful place.
PS Exactly what does Jerry Hall have to do with WA — anymore than Oprah Winfrey? If the stunning locations cannot sell themselves and Western Australian business cannot properly manage a ‘potentially’ lucrative business then I do not think an imported ‘star’ is going to really help.
I like the print. Looks semi-editorial, which is surely what they were going for.