Destination NSW, in partnership with the Regional Strategic Alliance, is launching the inaugural Wake Up With marketing campaign with the aim of stimulating demand to boost the visitor economy of Penrith, Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains, during the Spring travel period.

Wake Up With was identified as the campaign tagline and concept to imply overnight visitation and offer a refreshed awareness of experiences within the three areas.

The Wake Up With program builds on the Destination NSW and NSW Government commitment to growing the Regional NSW visitor economy, through marketing the State’s diverse destinations, unique experiences, festivals and events.

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

The campaign will run from 9 September until 3 November 2018 and consists of digital media, public relations activity and a partnership with Wotif.

A video and photo shoot was completed in early August 2018 to generate content showcasing a range of experiences across Penrith, Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains. Destination NSW and the Regional Strategic Alliance will leverage this collection of content across paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram and display activity, targeting Families and Active Singles in Greater Sydney.

To unite the three areas, four key experience themes were identified:

• Adventure

• Nature

• Food Experiences

• Culture & Heritage

All campaign activity will direct target audiences to bespoke themed landing pages, highlighting activities across the three areas. A Wake Up With campaign landing page will also feature on the homepage of visitnsw.com and sydney.com, to leverage organic website visitors.

A comprehensive PR program will be implemented to support and promote the Wake Up With campaign including an episode on Sydney Weekender, media famils and further Destination NSW communication channels.

Wotif, part of Expedia Group, has been selected as the conversion partner with activity in market for four weeks, consisting of paid media support through Wotif’s channels.

INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

1. Create Word of Mouth and Customer Engagement The success of this program will be greatly enhanced by the support of the NSW tourism industry. You can support this campaign by:

• Forwarding this fact sheet to your industry databases, visitor information centres and key partners.

• Including the campaign in your industry and consumer eNewsletters.

• Actively engaging with the campaign in all your social media to maximise the exposure of your region and experiences (please refer to point 3).

• Encouraging your local regional tourism stakeholders, local newspapers and professional and budding photographers and filmmakers to use the official campaign hashtags in social media posts so we can share content from the region on the VisitNSW and individuals regions social channels (please refer to point 3).

2. Create or Update your Get Connected listing on visitnsw.com To assist in driving additional overnight visitation to Penrith, Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains, we aim to increase leads to tourism operators via visitnsw.com and sydney.com. To make the biggest impact, be sure to update your free Get Connected listing on visitnsw.com (for Blue Mountains) and sydney.com (for Penrith and Hawkesbury), or if you are a tourism operator or event owner who does not have a listing yet, create one for free via the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) platform.

• Login in here atdw-online.com.au

• Make your listing stand out. Upload a gallery of high quality images (minimum size 2048 x 1536)

• Add your social media links and be sure to create inspirational content that is easily shareable

For more information about the Get Connected Program, please visit: https://www.destinationnsw.com.au/tourism/industry-opportunities/connect-your-tourism-product/get-connected

Please refer enquiries relating to the Wake Up With Regional Strategic Alliance campaign to your local Tourism Manager.

REGISTER WITH WOTIFDestination NSW and the Regional Strategic Alliance have partnered with Wotif for the Wake Up With campaign. Wotif is part of the Expedia Group and has been selected to support the campaign due to its range of available inventory across Penrith, Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains. Campaign activity will be in market for four weeks, from 23 September 2018, promoting the three areas across Wotif’s marketing channels. There will also be a dedicated landing page for the three areas.

To get the most out of this opportunity, we would like to invite you to register your property/properties with Wotif, to entice travellers to book your accommodation in Penrith, Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains. Please note: Participation is optional.

• Go to: https://join.expediapartnercentral.com/

• Click ‘List your property’ and you will be directed to another page to fill in some details.

3. Use the Campaign Hashtags in Social Media

Use the campaign hashtags in your social media activity to leverage the significant paid activity for this campaign. Official hashtags are #wakeupwith and #NewSouthWales.

You can also use the hashtag for your region:

#visitpenrith

#hawkesbury

#bluemountains

Destination NSW also has some handy social media guidelines that you can use for your own channels and it also provides a guide to the type of content that we post. The guidelines can be downloaded here: https://www.destinationnsw.com.au/tourism/industry-opportunities/connect-your-tourism-product.

4. Ask Your Visitors How They Heard About The Region

It will be helpful to Destination NSW and the Regional Strategic Alliance to receive feedback from people on the ground.

• Think about how you can ask your guests or customers how they heard about you?

• Ask your guests or customers if they have seen any Wake Up With advertising in market and if this had any impact on their decision to holiday in Penrith, Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains.

• Pass on any of this feedback to your local Tourism Manager who can share this with Destination NSW.

5. Utilise the Operator Toolkit

Destination NSW and the Regional Strategic Alliance have developed an Operator Toolkit which includes a number of assets for your use in promoting the campaign and the three areas.

• Add a digital banner to your website with a link to the campaign landing page on visitnsw.com. The link to use is different depending on the banner you are using. Please see the website landing page URLs in the section below.

• Add the email banner to your emails which can also use the links below.

• Share this campaign fact sheet with your local partners and operators.

• Share any social posts from www.facebook.com/visitnsw and www.instagram.com/visitnsw on your own social channels.

WEBSITE LANDING PAGES

Wake Up With: www.visitnsw.com/wake-up-with

Adventure: www.visitnsw.com/wake-up-with/adventure

Nature: www.visitnsw.com/wake-up-with/nature

Food Experiences: www.visitnsw.com/wake-up-with/food-experiences

Culture & Heritage: www.visitnsw.com/wake-up-with/culture-and-heritage

Penrith: www.sydney.com/penrith

Hawkesbury: www.sydney.com/hawkesbury

Blue Mountains: www.visitnsw.com/bluemountains