Although South Australian Tourism Commission has a beautiful island for people to visit, the destination of Kangaroo Island was often overlooked by Australians themselves.

With a reputation for working longer hours than most countries — and leaving vacation time unused — Australians present a challenge for vacation marketers.

SATC wanted to promote Kangaroo Island’s natural, off-the-grid experiences, which included beaches, wildlife, food, artists and artisans, as well as the fact that the island is noticeably lacking in mobile phone coverage, Wi-Fi, and traffic.

The tourism entity partnered with Fairfax Media to help Australians realise they wanted, needed, deserved, and would benefit from taking a break.

Three-step approach to get readers’ attention involved a campaign that would do the following:

• Seed the desire to “switch off.”
  
  
• Interrupt readers and help them experience a taste of Kangaroo Island.
  
  
• Inspire them to visit Kangaroo Island for themselves.

Step 1: Seed

To create the fertile ground that would encourage readers to take a break from work, the campaign began in January, which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. As the readers prepared for the new work year and returned to work, the newspaper ran a series of editorial on the dangers of not “switching off.”

The story angles included the dangers for fathers and their relationships with their children and the health dangers of not taking down time.

Step 2: Interrupt

The print phase of the campaign launched with a half-page wrap of the newspaper that invited readers to breathe, unwind, and relax.

Over the following weeks, that phase was followed with a glossy, award-winning advertorial series called “Moments,” which ran in Good Weekend, the newspaper-inserted magazine. The series was designed to intrigue readers and give them a taste of Kangaroo Island.

The digital component of this step was to take over the homepage of the newspaper and use it to transport audiences to Kangaroo Island, with animated waves gently breaking across the gutters.

Step 3: Inspire

To further engage readers and allow them to insert themselves in the Kangaroo Island experience, the newspaper’s Facebook page featured a competition, which also was promoted on the homepage.

Readers were asked to upload their photo, then select a panoramic shot from Kangaroo Island to put themselves in. They also were offered a series of backgrounds to download that were sized to be used as their desktop wallpaper or Facebook timeline cover photo.

In print, an eight-page Good Long Weekend advertorial ran over the long June holiday weekend, exploring the experiences of Kangaroo Island and encouraging readers to discover it in person.

The South Australian Tourism Commission says the campaign effectively reached its objectives and allowed consumers to connect with the idea of switching off.

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