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National recognition putting Ipswich on the map

No matter what the judges decide on October 10, tourism is already a winner with council’s Ipswich Destination Marketing Campaign.

Fresh off the back of a Bronze award in the Australian ‘Effie’ Awards for marketing effectiveness, Ipswich City Council is again a national finalist, this time in the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) Awards.

Our 2017 Ipswich Destination Marketing Campaign is one of eight finalists in the Public Sector Marketing category, with winners to be announced in Sydney on October 10.

But regardless of who takes home the AMI award next month, council’s Tourism Development Manager Alistair Tavares said credit goes to everyone involved in promoting Ipswich both directly and indirectly.

The campaign’s aim was to shift the needle on mainstream perceptions and sentiment towards Ipswich, converting that to increased numbers of southeast Queensland residents taking a daytrip or short break in Ipswich.

With a small budget, the year-long marketing activity worked with credible partners and channels including Google, Canon, Great Day Out and MustDo Brisbane to showcase Ipswich to the 2.3 million people who live within two hours of our city.

The team also bolstered council assets such as Discover Ipswich website and social media, reinvented publications and secured online and outdoors advertising media, promoting Ipswich as ‘Queensland’s Heritage City that never felt so young’.

Council also worked to unite tourism operators and increase customer service standards and collaborative partnerships. This included structured digital workshops to leverage social and digital channels to drive business.

The 2017 campaign had incredible outcomes including:

  • Huge jump in unique visitors to DiscoverIpswich.com.au (from more than 96,000 to more than 738,000)
  • More than four times the number of social media followers (from more than 20,000 to almost 88,000)
  • A 27 per cent increase in targeted visitor arrivals, with an estimated $70 million increase in visitor expenditure
  • Increase in tourism operators with TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence (from 5 to 26) including the only operator in Queensland with a perfect 100% score

Mr Tavares said the process of developing and delivering the Ipswich Destination Marketing Campaign has brought council and the Ipswich tourism industry together.

“Our marketing and industry activity has started to raise the bar for southeast Queensland destination marketing,” he said.

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