Content marketing is key to our digital strategy: Nishant Kashikar, Tourism Australia
Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, on the media executions being used for the recent campaign and the growth of digital in their marketing spends
In a bid to woo Indian travelers, Tourism Australia has launched a new tourism promotion campaign in India and South East Asia. The latest chapter in Tourism Australia's evolving 'There's Nothing Like Australia' campaign, 'UnDiscover Australia' specifically targets high value travellers in India, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
They have taken the wrapper off their fresh $10 million campaign for the South and South East Asian markets aimed at challenging perceptions of what a holiday down under means as a tourist. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, chatted exclusively with exchange4media about the media executions being used for the campaign, the growth of digital in their marketing spends and how the brand measures the efficacy of their digital campaigns.
When quizzed about what the genesis of the communication was, Kashikar said, “India as a market has got tremendous opportunity. It is the fastest-growing economy in the world, fastest-growing middle-class in the world and the fastest-growing domestic aviation market. We thought that it is the perfect time to capitalise on the India-opportunity. To support that, we have had four consecutive years of double-digit growth on arrivals and spends and our market share has increased significantly. Also the Australian dollar is predictably stable as compared to other currencies. We thought of tapping into this particular potential."
He revealed that the Indian outbound travel market is surging ahead and it is one of the fastest-growing markets. “There is an untapped potential that exists. In order to increase the destination market share, we want to give people reasons to travel to Australia. However, we needed to bridge the gap between the intention to visit and actual visitation. There’s a conversion gap and how do you bridge that with compelling reasons for someone to visit Australia? By showcasing a part of Australia which is unexplored, unfamiliar and undiscovered,” explained Kashikar.
He shared that the campaign will be a year-long initiative which will include a robust television campaign. Other plans include capitalising on the Indian cricket team’s tour to Australia by working closely with Sony and Sony LIV. “We have content-integration opportunities with platforms such as ESPN, Conde Nast Group and we’re also working with friends of Australia and influencers such as, Parineeti Chopra, Harsha Bhogle and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. This will be further amplified on their digital platforms too,” he revealed.
For this, Tourism Australia will also work closely with key distribution partners such as, MakeMyTrip and SOTC, and will get influencers and celebrities to travel to Australia. ”Our focus is on attracting the high-value travel segment which could contribute significantly to the Australian economy. Banking partners help us target those affluent customers. We are also looking at some partnerships with Facebook and Google to target the specific demographics we want to reach,” he said.
Kashikar also spoke about the growth of the brand’s spends on digital.” Digital is an important part of our marketing mix. We’ve seen our spends on digital media increase from 7 per cent in 2012 to 60 per cent in 2017. So there is definitely a shift on digital initiatives through integrated campaigns on search, social, display, natives, programmatic and re-targeting tools. We are also going to leverage the OTT platforms and are looking at television as a medium to drive this aspiration to travel to Australia.”
When quizzed about the market challenges faced, he said, “Rather than demand-side challenges, we face a lot of supply-side challenges like the indirect distribution capacity from India to Australia which has been addressed with our recent initiatives of tie ups with eight airlines for discounted fares.”
Kashikar opened up that they do a lot of work in the content-marketing space. ”For one of our campaigns, we recently hosted the top 50 food and wine influencers to Australia. This helped amplify our food and wine messaging across their social-media platforms and broadcast channels as well. So content-marketing is a key part of our digital marketing strategy,” he said.
He shared that the brand measures the efficacy of their digital campaigns by looking at various factors such as leads generated as a result of the campaign, average time spent on their website and more. “We ensure that the ROI for our campaign keeps increasing with every dollar that we spend."
They have taken the wrapper off their fresh $10 million campaign for the South and South East Asian markets aimed at challenging perceptions of what a holiday down under means as a tourist. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, chatted exclusively with exchange4media about the media executions being used for the campaign, the growth of digital in their marketing spends and how the brand measures the efficacy of their digital campaigns.
When quizzed about what the genesis of the communication was, Kashikar said, “India as a market has got tremendous opportunity. It is the fastest-growing economy in the world, fastest-growing middle-class in the world and the fastest-growing domestic aviation market. We thought that it is the perfect time to capitalise on the India-opportunity. To support that, we have had four consecutive years of double-digit growth on arrivals and spends and our market share has increased significantly. Also the Australian dollar is predictably stable as compared to other currencies. We thought of tapping into this particular potential."
He revealed that the Indian outbound travel market is surging ahead and it is one of the fastest-growing markets. “There is an untapped potential that exists. In order to increase the destination market share, we want to give people reasons to travel to Australia. However, we needed to bridge the gap between the intention to visit and actual visitation. There’s a conversion gap and how do you bridge that with compelling reasons for someone to visit Australia? By showcasing a part of Australia which is unexplored, unfamiliar and undiscovered,” explained Kashikar.
He shared that the campaign will be a year-long initiative which will include a robust television campaign. Other plans include capitalising on the Indian cricket team’s tour to Australia by working closely with Sony and Sony LIV. “We have content-integration opportunities with platforms such as ESPN, Conde Nast Group and we’re also working with friends of Australia and influencers such as, Parineeti Chopra, Harsha Bhogle and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. This will be further amplified on their digital platforms too,” he revealed.
For this, Tourism Australia will also work closely with key distribution partners such as, MakeMyTrip and SOTC, and will get influencers and celebrities to travel to Australia. ”Our focus is on attracting the high-value travel segment which could contribute significantly to the Australian economy. Banking partners help us target those affluent customers. We are also looking at some partnerships with Facebook and Google to target the specific demographics we want to reach,” he said.
Kashikar also spoke about the growth of the brand’s spends on digital.” Digital is an important part of our marketing mix. We’ve seen our spends on digital media increase from 7 per cent in 2012 to 60 per cent in 2017. So there is definitely a shift on digital initiatives through integrated campaigns on search, social, display, natives, programmatic and re-targeting tools. We are also going to leverage the OTT platforms and are looking at television as a medium to drive this aspiration to travel to Australia.”
When quizzed about the market challenges faced, he said, “Rather than demand-side challenges, we face a lot of supply-side challenges like the indirect distribution capacity from India to Australia which has been addressed with our recent initiatives of tie ups with eight airlines for discounted fares.”
Kashikar opened up that they do a lot of work in the content-marketing space. ”For one of our campaigns, we recently hosted the top 50 food and wine influencers to Australia. This helped amplify our food and wine messaging across their social-media platforms and broadcast channels as well. So content-marketing is a key part of our digital marketing strategy,” he said.
He shared that the brand measures the efficacy of their digital campaigns by looking at various factors such as leads generated as a result of the campaign, average time spent on their website and more. “We ensure that the ROI for our campaign keeps increasing with every dollar that we spend."
Tags
Harsha bhogle
Makemytrip
Nishant kashikar
Parineeti chopra
Sony
Sony liv
Chef sanjeev kapoor
Conde Nast
Australia Tourism
