Tasmanian Industry - Marketing Strategy

Regional Marketing Strategy FAQ's

Why did Tourism Tasmania feel it necessary to change regional marketing from the current 3 areas to a multiple zone marketing approach?

For some important reasons:

The current regional divisions do not necessarily make the best sense to consumers seeking a holiday. This was validated in the extensive research conducted into the drivers and consumer behaviour around choosing a holiday destination.
The perceptions study (refer to the Lighthouse report 1) also told us that consumers struggled to identify much more about Tasmania than it’s clean green image, some quality food and wine products, wilderness and nature. In other words, they could not easily identify what other experiences and activities TAsmania had to offer, nor where they might be found on the island.
Communicating the offer as it related to key holiday drivers – coastal and beach experiences; dining; unique shopping; arts, culture and heritage is a critical next step in the marketing of Tasmania. It was clear that segmenting this into logical ‘chunks’ – or zones as we have called them - is a better way to achieve a connection to these consumers.
A more focused and direct relationship between the $4million+ spent by Tourism Tasmania and the total promotional money spent by industry is critical to our future success. A stronger co-operative effort will result in better penetration of all our messages into key domestic markets. This has been done over many years with tremendous success in Victoria under the ‘Jigsaw’ campaign “You”ll Love Every Piece of Victoria”, and more recently is showing positive results in both SA and NSW.
It is a mechanism by which industry can more directly benefit from the branding and selling of Tasmania, and help to extend the work which has already delivered a significant rise in business across the Tasmanian industry. Over time, this will result in a better Return on Investment on promotional spend overall.

Why should we support this initiative?

The more we can be united in the way we speak to consumers and how we spend our limited funds available on promotion, the more focused and influential our messages will be. By aligning our activities, it is more likely consumers will ‘hear us’ as we try to capture their attention and thus a larger share of their ‘holiday wallet’. Put simply, one very big domestic campaign effort can reach further, and be louder than many small campaigns.

Most importantly, this new marketing strategy will see the precious dollars you commit to marketing activities matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Under this initiative, Tourism Tasmania has committed to invest $100,000 per marketing zone to support the implementation of these campaigns. That means, if you put your dollars into the co-operative campaign that supports your respective marketing zone, Tourism Tasmania will match those collective dollars up to a maximum of $100,000. So, if a marketing zone is able to raise $100,000 within its area, it will have a marketing budget of $200,000 to promote that zone. Whatever amount is ultimately raised within the zone, however, that amount will be effectively doubled by this dollar-for-dollar strategy.

What will happen to the touring routes?

Touring routes remain as a component of this new way of marketing the State and their communication is in the hands of those who currently support them. However, in planning promotional expenditure to bring visitors from mainland Australia, we need to respect that generally these route names have little resonance and need to be put into some context for visitors who are unfamiliar with Tasmania. The touring routes are not significant holiday drivers in and of themselves, but they do represent an excellent means by which to educate consumers as to how they can travel around the State. They also present a solid and well-established mechanism to facilitate cooperative marketing activities within and across marketing zones.

Touring routes are ways to get from A to B and can help visitors who are already here to get more enjoyment from travelling along a point to point road. Touring routes can be developed into a cohesive product offer, and as long as visitors who are already here have a choice of road to go from A to B, continued encouragement to choose one road over another may be deemed necessary.

The future of touring routes therefore will need continued discussion between those operators and local governments who support them, and their success and return on marketing dollars invested continually monitored.

In attempting to get a regional message to the mainland before visitors arrive, we must always sell into their holiday drivers, and respect that visitor wants and behaviours around holidays have changed substantially in recent years.

Zone Marketing Groups will also consider touring routes as they plan their marketing and promotions.

What will happen to the work we have already done on our destination brands?

Tourism Tasmania will continue its work in promoting Tasmania, (the "Island of Inspiration" brand) domestically which includes a wide range of TV, print, outdoor and online activities. We will also continue our work in promoting the unique tourism “sector experiences” such as eco-adventure, golf, fly-fishing, food and wine which can be found across the state.

The creation of Marketing Zones requires new creative brand work which will represent the distinct essence and personality of each Zone. Tourism Tasmania will provide the services of its brand advertising agency, LOVE to develop the new Zone creative sub-brands using the input from the recent industry workshops.

Previous regional sub-branding work will be taken into account in this development phase. The new Zone sub-brand will sit above individual destinations.

What happens to those operators who are on the boundaries of the new zones?

It is important that each operator decides for themselves which Zone is best for them to become aligned to – no one knows and understands your customers the way you do. In some cases, operators may feel they should participate in the campaigns across two zones, and that’s perfectly fine. . Certainly, Tourism Tasmania can provide information and research to assist in this analysis, but ultimately, it is a business decision for each operator.

To help guide your decision, you might ask:

In which zone would a consumer be most likely to expect to find my product?
What is each zone doing to promote the area, and which suits the nature of my product the best?

Will Tourism Tasmania continue to fund the Regional Tourism Authorities?

The three Regional Tourism Authorities will continue to play an important role and the Zone concept will see them working even more closely with operators and Tourism Tasmania to coordinate and guide the promotion of their regions. Their annual funding from Tourism Tasmania will continue, however the allocation of funds to the Marketing Zones will be additional marketing funds from Tourism Tasmania.

What will happen to the money my local council currently puts into tourism?

Some will find that they have more than one zone within their local government boundaries. It is important to remember that visitors take no notice, nor do they care, about these local boundary lines. Just as operators will make business decisions, so will local councils.

Local government should be encouraged by their operators to continue to contribute to promotion focussing on two things:

1. The extent to which tourism contributes to their local economy and the jobs it can help to generate and sustain;

And

2. The potential to have their financial contribution matched, dollar-for-dollar, in any region they place it, and thereby doubled in every case.

Councils contributing to more than one campaign zone can only increase their chances for their local message to be heard.

How should Zone Marketing Groups be made up?

Any operator within a zone may become a member of the Zone Marketing Group. No operator may sit on more than one ZMG.
Ideally between nine and eleven people should comprise a ZMG.
The groups will be comprised of operators and will each have an RTA Rep and a Tourism Tas Rep.
Ideally, the ZMG should seek an independent Chairperson. Zone Marketing funds may be used to fund the Chair position if the Zone group deems appropriate, and independent Chairs may sit on more than one ZMG.
If a chairperson is elected from within the group, the chair should still refrain from voting.
Interested people will need to apply to become a member of the ZMG and the group will be selected by the RTA and Tourism Tasmania based on merit and skills.
People wishing to represent their zone should simply provide a one sheet outline of their skills, experience in tourism or their area of business, and reasons for wishing to become a Marketing Zone group member. In other words, what they can bring to the table that will help to progress the tourism business base and promotion of the zone.
ZMG’s don’t have to be made up solely of operators. If there are individuals thought to be valuable from a Chamber of Commerce, or another field of endeavour who are enthusiastic about developing tourism, and also prepared to participate, they can certainly be considered.

I’m already busy, so if I do apply to be on my Zone Marketing Group, what will I have to do?

Attend a monthly meeting (the location will be rotated around the Zone area)
Be an advocate for the campaigns amongst your local area operators
Participate in discussions or advocacy (for example with local council or chambers of commerce) about the zone’s promotion
Encourage people to become financially involved in the zone campaigns and help to ensure financial obligations are met by participating operators
Contribute to the development of the marketing plan for your zone
Be part of occasional meetings or exchanges with other zones and Tourism Tasmania

Apart from the monthly meeting, will it take up much of my time?

At the most, it should take up no more than 6-8 hours per month. Obviously, the early days of forming the groups will require more time and attention, but that will only be in the initial stages.

What will the Zone Marketing group be responsible for?

The ZMG will have several responsibilities. Broadly, they are as follows:

ZMG will work with the RTA representatives and Tourism Tasmania staff to develop and implement their zone campaign;
ZMG will be required to become active local advocates and points of liaison for the campaigns and marketing plans;
ZMG will complete an annual Zone marketing plan with tactical activities and measures. We are looking for the plans to commence from 1 July 2008.
ZMG and RTA will jointly enter into a form of agreement with Tourism Tasmania about the mandatory requirements to secure Tourism Tasmania funding on a $1 for $1 basis.

What about my expenses if I become part of the ZMG?

ZMG member expenses could be reimbursed under their respective RTA guidelines, and may be claimed from the zone marketing budget if the Zone marketing groups deems it appropriate.

How will the funding allocation work?

A total of $500,000 a year is available for the next three years to support Zone Marketing across Tasmania. This is in addition to the overall $4 million spent each year by Tourism Tasmania on marketing the State.

In order to receive the funds, each ZMG must fulfil the mandatory marketing requirements. As part of this each marketing zone can receive up to $100,000 a year however this must be matched by industry, local govrenment and other sources. For every dollar the industry contributes, Toursim Tasmania will contribute a dollar up to $500,000, thereby doubling the value of the zones campaigns.

Can the money be spent any way the ZMG chooses?

Some mandatory tactical promotions or collateral will be required. Once these have been achieved, the ZMG is free to spend the remainder as it sees fit, providing it is part of the mutually agreed zone marketing plan of activities.

How will the Zone create a marketing plan?

The ZMG will prepare a Zone Marketing plan. How this is delivered is up to each ZMG. They may choose to use elements of an existing RTA or LTA plan and add new elements while deleting others, or commence entirely from scratch.

Tourism Tasmania will provide each group with a prospectus of tourism Tasmania's marketing activities for the next 12-18 months so the group can plan in a way that leverages these major communications/promotions. Tourism Tasmania can also supply a template and a facilitator for the marketing plan if that is felt to be helpful. Creation of the marketing plan should be one of the first orders of business for the Zone Marketing Group.

The ZMG Marketing Plan will be completed and lodged with Tourism Tasmania and the RTA.

Is this plan for Zone Marketing decided and what room is there for input and discussion?

The plan details are not set in stone.
Our plan has always been to work in partnership with the industry via peak bodies, RTA's and regional industry workshops to build the detail around the form and function of the program.

The decision to market by zone is set, and this is in direct response to consumers telling us what they are wanting and what they do and do not know about Tasmania as a holiday destination.
Please refer to the Lighthouse Reports for more detailed market research.

The details surrounding groups formation, 'boundaries' of the zones, how zone marketing groups might operate, marketing mandatories and even the mechanisms for funding and the governance issues have been developed jointly with the RTA's and other peak industry bodies over the past months.

Industry feedback was requested, and the dates for that were also extended. We continue to work with industry to ensure that this program will be a comprehensive partnership between government and industry which will have support, ownership and carriage within industry.

We also believe that this will become the vehicle by which the largest number of industry operators possible can participate directly in the extensive programs and activities Tourism Tasmania is undertaking to more effectively market Tasmania.

Your views and suggestions for this page should be directed through your RTA, either directly or via your LTA, or to the Chair Person of each Zone Marketing Group.