Creating the Next Big Thing for Wotif

Challenge

As Australia’s first online travel site, Wotif was once the local leader in domestic bookings but had since become foreign to Australians. The brand wanted to put Wotif back on the map as the authority for all things Australia through their rebrand campaign as “Aussie for Travel.”

Culture

The Big “Thing” is a huge part of the fabric of Australian tourism - and many towns strive to create their own unique icon. Let’s re-establish Wotif as an iconic brand by leveraging that passion - with the Next Big Thing.

Creativity

We created a three-phased campaign to get Australians invested in the process of getting their next tourist attraction. First, backed with research on how much Australians love Big Things and their benefit to local towns, we asked all Australians to decide what the Next Big Thing should be and where it should be located through an open submission process on the Wotif webpage. After reviewing popular entries and speaking with relevant town authorities, Wotif decided on the shortlist of four towns for Australians to vote on in a two-week voting period, highlighting each location’s individual story and tourist value to create local ground swell. Finally, after just five weeks, we revealed the Next Big Thing in the winning location with an exclusive with The Today Show and the winning state’s metro paper.

Clout

The campaign generated 2,000+ pieces of coverage with a potential reach of more than 200 million. We saw strong consumer participation with voting on the shortlist the equivalent of 70% of the population of the four shortlisted regional towns combined. All in all, it was Wotif’s most successful campaign to date garnering recognition from key stakeholders in the US who read the news on earned coverage ahead of receiving the campaign wrap.