Challenge

After a challenging period during the pandemic, the tourism sector is now seeing a strong resurgence. According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (November 2023), international arrivals has reached 91% of pre-pandemic levels in January to September 2023, reflecting a growing interest in global travel.

Tourism Australia wanted to capitalise on this strong demand and stand out amidst a competitive tourism market of other destinations like Japan and Indonesia. Close to 80% of Malaysians are travelling overseas for holidays, most with their family, making the family segment particular promising.

The goal was to establish Australia as the top choice of travel for Malaysian families, highlighting its family-friendly offerings that cater to all ages.

Objective: To increase campaign reach to the target audience by at least 50%.

Solution

Tourism Australia strategised to develop a content partnership with Astro and leverage on existing content assets to enable branding opportunities.

To win the hearts of Malaysian families, we knew we had to target the key decision-makers, Malaysian dads.

We identified the comedy travel reality show ‘Projek Bapak Bapak’ as the ideal content IP for sponsorship, leveraging on the appeal of the Celebrity Dads and engaging content to connect with the target demographic.

Capitalising on this opportunity by becoming the sole sponsor, Tourism Australia achieved a 100% share of voice and enhanced its prominence on TV.

We implemented a multi-faceted approach, embedding Tourism Australia’s branding and messaging in various media and promotional techniques to engage the target audience comprehensively.

  • Reaction Capsule Integration: Celebrity Dads react to some of the best moments from their Australian adventure and provide humorous commentary, which were made into 1-minute reaction capsules within each episode, disseminated across TV, digital, and social media platforms.
  • Lower Third Banners: Promotional banners appeared during location highlights, linking to relevant partner websites for easy access to more information and booking options.
  • Host/Credit Mentions: Hosts mentions of Tourism Australia towards the end of each episode, directing viewers to Tourism Australia’s website and partner sites.
  • Branding in Opening/Closing Credits: Consistent brand visibility was ensured throughout the show by featuring Tourism Australia in the opening and closing credits.
  • Digital & Social Media Integration: Short clips of the show were shared to Astro Gempak’s YouTube channel, digital and social media platforms to increase visibility and drive interaction beyond the TV show.

Results

Overall, the campaign effectively met the brand’s main objectives of boosting campaign awareness and exceeded media buying targets across all channels, including TV, digital, and social media.

Media Targets:

  • Achieved a reach of 8 million with 240 GRPs with a total of 360 spots of 15-second TV commercials aired.
  • Articles written about the sponsorship attracted 3,033 unique visitors on Gempak leading to an additional 1,600 unique visitors to Australia.com.
  • Digital capsules generated 207,000 impressions and 7,000 engagements.

Brand Impact:

  • Reached 59% of the target audience, amounting to 364,000 individuals, surpassing benchmarks by +9%.
  • PR activities generated substantial value and extensive content, including 15 video episodes and online branded articles resulting in Earned Advertising Value (EAV) of approximately AUD$48,000 (~RM150,000) worth of brand exposure.
  • A key partner featured in the lower third banner experienced an 3% increase in web traffic during the program’s airing.

For Astro, The Projek Bapak Bapak show received noteworthy earned media promotion with a combined media value of RM 1,219,153!

Digital Performance:

  • High views and engagement on Astro’s digital and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Gempak website, recording 10.2 million digital views.
  • Particularly, TikTok’s UGC content generated from the show recorded 17.2 million views. 

 TV Ratings:

  • S2 of “Travelawak Projek Bapak Bapak ” achieved a 5% increase in average TV ratings and peak ratings at 48.9% increase, compared to Season 1, indicating a stronger viewer interest and engagement.
  • On Demand growth for S2 in unique viewers (13.7%), minutes viewed (19.1%), and title views (10.2%) compared to Season 1, indicating a strong preference for on-demand content.