The Situation:

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a natural wonder, but negative media after bleaching events had hurt its reputation. Tourism & Events Queensland needed to change the conversation and stimulate tourism to the reef.

The Brief:

Bring the story of the GBR to life, drive awareness and consideration among high value travellers from key western markets. Leverage earned media and owned channels, negate the current media and consumer sentiment, shift thinking and change the conversation.

Objectives:

Educate and drive awareness of the GBR’s abundant marine life across key markets with a target reach of 100M. Increase consideration and travel intent to the GBR. Drive advocacy around the GBR, among tier one media outlets, with a focus on consumer titles to achieve positive balance against the negativity. Create a ROI of $40M in ASR value from earned channels.

We created the world’s first ride-share submarine on the Great Barrier Reef, called scUber by creating a global partnership between Tourism & Events Queensland and Uber.

From the window of our submarine, we showed the reef like never before, a unique and vibrant underwater world teeming with life.

The activation ran for a month launching on Heron Island on 23 May 2019 and moving to Agincourt Reef, Cairns from 10 April 2019.

scUber was available to riders by request directly through the Uber app. They had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the exquisite beauty of the reef. We were able to leverage the ‘first riders’ of scUber among global TV broadcast, press and social outlets.

To celebrate the launch, we offered a ride to one lucky winner and a friend from each key western market, using a consumer competition to drive a further burst of media coverage and engagement.

Target Audience:

• High Value Traveller (Aus)

i. Travelling with children

Interstate - 1.4 million – 55% (25–44)

Intrastate - 288,000 – 57% (35–54)

ii. 18 – 49 YO travelling without children

Interstate - 67% (25–44)

Intrastate – 61% (25–44)

iii. 50+ YO travelling without children

Interstate - 75% (55–74)

Intrastate – 75% (55–74)

• Other markets – UK, USA, Canada, France and New Zealand

Approach:

To bring the GBR to life and negate the current conversation, we needed to find a way of connecting consumers and media with the GBR; helping them see the reef like never before, by showing the reef in an inspiring and innovative way.

Uber’s involvement was key. We pitched the concept to Uber – to form a global partnership between TEQ and the world’s largest rideshare platform – creating and implementing a global campaign that had mass scale and newsworthiness.

Implementation: 23rd May – 30th June 2019

- TEQ hosted 28 top tier media from six countries at the launch, which included a panel session with esteemed Reef experts to readdress the myths surrounding the state of the GBR.

- scUber rides were experienced by a total of 90 people, including media, influencers and prize winners. They were educated and armed with first-hand accounts of the true health of the Reef, turning them into advocates.

- A 48hr press office distributed news and assets globally driving mass awareness and impact through interviews, fresh content and storytelling.

- A competition was held across six selected markets, driving further media coverage and engagement.

- Competition winners’ scUber rides drove sustained coverage, including a marriage proposal by the Canadian winner on-board, extending the conversation in global press.

- A drumbeat of proactive press angles and organic content broadened earned outcomes across key markets.

AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT

• 4,694 earned media placements including national TV, print and online stories.

• 345 million estimated viewership

• 4.7 Billion total media impressions

• $130M+ earned media value (NB. surpassing the $40m earned media objective set at the beginning of the campaign)

• Over 16 hours of VNR vision utilised by global broadcast media (53 countries)

• Over 42 million social impressions with 499,796 clicks

• 4,271,445 snapchat impressions

• 871,543 Instastory impressions

• 47 million unique Uber app sessions during the period via helix tiles

SENTIMENT

• 95% of media stories were positive or neutral in sentiment

• Conversation on social channels was three times more positive than pre-campaign (Source: Synthesio)

ACTION

• 152,524 competition entries globally over two weeks

• 59% opt-in rate to database leading to an 87% increase in new-subscribers for TEQ

• 88,893 industry leads delivered