Consumer Marketing

Feel New brand

‘Feel New’ is the visitor brand platform that underpins all of Destination NSW’s consumer marketing activity both domestically and internationally.

Feel New activity continued throughout the 2023-2024 financial year with a campaign aimed at increasing destination awareness and driving higher consideration of Sydney as a holiday destination by promoting key travel driver experiences to high-value travellers.

The campaign was executed through paid media, PR and media, industry partnership campaigns, social media, websites and eDM channels. The campaign showcased the key strengths of Sydney and focused on a visitor’s core drivers or motivators for travel, including major sporting and entertainment events, vibrant contemporary culture, the creative industries, nightlife and world-class food and beverage offerings.

People who had seen the Feel New campaign and recognised it as a promotional activity for the state were on average 37 per cent more likely to find Sydney appealing compared to those who did not see the campaign. Similarly, people who recognised the campaign were on average 8 per cent more likely to consider a holiday to Sydney in the next 12 months, compared to those who did not see the campaign.

Since the Feel New brand launched in October 2021, all PR and media activity has supported Feel New, generating more than $962 million in equivalent advertising exposure and reaching an audience globally of 55 billion in cumulative media reach in that time.

Digital communications highlights

Destination NSW connects with industry, consumers and media across a variety of digital and social media platforms, promoting awareness of Sydney and regional NSW destinations, attractions, experiences and key events.

Spotlight

Case studies from Destination NSW’s domestic and international marketing programs in FY23-24, targeting key travel markets to drive awareness and consideration of our destinations and increase visitation to Sydney and regional NSW.

Leveraging FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023

Destination NSW leveraged the historic FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 event by delivering a comprehensive marketing and communications program to support the 11 FIFA World Cup matches in Sydney.

The activity included:

• Dedicated awareness and ticketing campaigns across paid, earned, shared and owned channels to drive incremental awareness and ticket sales in the domestic market, with specific focus on encouraging visitation from non-Sydney source markets.
• A comprehensive multicultural strategy including paid advertising, content marketing and networking, targeting football fans from key communities.
• Itineraries and content presenting the Sydney experience.
• A campaign promoting the FIFA Fan Festival in Darling Harbour, Sydney.
• Delivery of an extensive city activation program of city banners, street furniture and digital billboards, plus Entertainment Quarter and Sydney Airport takeovers.
• Transit advertising, bespoke FIFA WWC installations and pop-up entertainment.
• Bringing colour and excitement to the stadiums with an unrivaled precinct activation program.
• Targeted press office and PR activity to deepen storytelling to include destination stories, as well as the creation of unique media moments, such as the Penguin FIFA Match Winner Predict.

Driving international market growth

With international visitation strongly increasing from all NSW’s priority markets, the state is well positioned to transition into a period of sustained growth for the state’s visitor economy. The international priority markets for NSW are China, USA, UK, India, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.

In FY23-24 Destination NSW developed integrated partnership marketing programs for each priority market and delivered demand-driving campaigns with international airlines and key distribution partners, targeting consumers with a high propensity to travel.

Through creative executions across paid and owned channels, including digital video, digital display and influencers, the partnership programs promoted key destinations, experiences and events such as Vivid Sydney.

Partnership programs were supported with PR activity to generate media and social coverage to increase awareness and appeal of Sydney and NSW. This was executed by PR agencies in China, India, UK and USA and via partnering with Tourism Australia.

Accelerating aviation recovery

In 2021, the NSW Government launched the Aviation Attraction Fund as part of its $530 million COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan to rebuild the NSW visitor economy, create jobs and ensure the state’s future success.

The Aviation Attraction Fund was designed to accelerate NSW’s road to recovery by building aviation capacity to the state. This was achieved through securing routes that drive significant economic and social benefits via visitor expenditure and job creation, in addition to other economic benefits from freight and related activity.

The Aviation Attraction Fund closed on 30 June 2023, with support continuing to be delivered.

The objectives of the fund were to:

• Drive significant economic and social benefits to the state through visitation, visitor spend and job creation
• Rebuild capacity into NSW through tailored airline incentives
• Grow market share from other states given airlines scaled down considerably during COVID-19
• Attract new airlines to NSW

In FY23-24, Destination NSW worked with airlines under the Aviation Attraction Fund to deliver campaigns that supported trade training, PR, media familiarisation and trade familiarisation programs. This was to stimulate demand and generate bookings for travel with airlines into Sydney and NSW. Activity under this program will continue through to 2027.

JT Travels NSW

A broadcast integration with Australia’s number one morning show, Weekend Sunrise, played a pivotal role in Destination NSW’s public relations strategy during FY23-24. Hosted by James Tobin (JT), the monthly ‘JT Travels NSW’ integration provided an exclusive promotional platform via weather segments, which were broadcast live from different locations around the state.

Travel deals aligned to featured destinations and experiences were included in each weekend broadcast, providing direct conversion opportunities to drive increased visitor spend.

The Destination NSW PR team supported each Network Seven broadcast with targeted media pitches and content. They also worked closely with Destination NSW’s Digital, Content and Social team to amplify the partnership across Destination NSW’s owned channels, driving engagement and leads to industry, as well as media coverage.

Wotif partnership

Destination NSW recognises the need for responsive and dynamic partnerships to not only grow the NSW visitor economy, but to increase market share by positioning the state as a preferred place to visit.

In FY23-24, the domestic market was well on the road to recovery post-COVID-19, providing Destination NSW with an opportunity to strengthen partnerships with key online travel agents.

Destination NSW partnered with one of Australia’s leading online travel agencies, Wotif, to help stimulate demand, drive incremental visitation, and increase length of stay to Sydney and regional NSW via Wotif.com.

Iconic destinations, attractions, events, and experiences across the state were packaged into partnership campaigns across paid and owned channels including social, digital video, native, and digital display.