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2013 saw Australia’s largest and most celebrated cultural event, The Royal Easter Show, fall outside the Easter school holidays.
Given the shows 100 year history and positioning as a school holiday family experience, this timing would challenge attendance and ticket sales.
We knew we needed to engage beyond the traditional audience to reach our goal of selling 800,000 tickets for the 2 week event
Our strategy was based on the key insight; The Easter Show is bursting with sensory experiences. Regardless of demographic, there is something at the show for everyone. We created 5 unique characters, each which embodied one of the five senses and which would go on to showcase the show’s myriad of attractions via the senses they evoke. The Senses characters became the driving force for all content in an integrated, multi-channelled campaign.
All campaign elements worked seamlessly together resulting in a massive success. The show saw record crowds with 860,000 tickets sold. That’s 60,000 tickets above our goal! The Senses characters were highly engaging, with a 36% improvement on banner click-through-rates than last year and fantastic results from the Facebook app which saw an impressive number of returning users, a total of 30,000 entries in 3 weeks.
printcampaign
Our printed advertisements featured our campaign motto “Let your Senses Run Wild” and showcased the exciting attractions as well as The Senses characters. The posters were spread across News Metro and News Community including Newspapers, magazines and Australia Post advertisements for widespread reach.
TVC
We created a 15” and a 30” TVC, which was written and produced by our team. Our Senses characters drove the action onscreen, manoeuvring through the show grounds and promoting the diverse range of attractions from wine tasting, to show-bags, to new nightlife entertainment.
Each unique character was conceptualized from scratch and brought to life from sketch pad through to animation.
bannercampaign
Our eye-catching, animated banners helped improve click-through-rates by 36% on last year. The sensory features of the characters were amplified, often focusing on their tongue or an eyeball – enticing the user to click through.
website
We redesigned the Easter Show website, optimising and streamlining access to the cart, as well as incorporating our fun creative. We included a “Meet the Senses” tab that introduced each Sense and listed the attractions related to each below. The redesign saw massive improvements across the board including a 13% increase in visits, 110% increase in cart visits, and a 12% increase in early bird tickets, all significantly up from last year.
mobile
The mobile app allowed show-goers to have on-the-go access to event timetables, maps and show information, as well as provide the opportunity to redeem promotions and discounts.
facebook
We developed a new Facebook app which we designed from a converted dollhouse into an interactive set. This would form our Easter Show HQ – a room for The Senses to hang-out in while they eagerly awaited the start of the show. Users were prompted to answer Easter Show trivia for the chance to win free passes.
The app saw fantastic engagement with an impressive number of returning users. A total of 30,000 entries were submitted to the app by 7,000 users in only 3 weeks.
tickets
The 2013 Royal Easter Show saw a record attendance with 860,000 tickets sold. That’s 60,000 more tickets than our target! There was an increase in ticket sales from the Asian market, with Korea and China forecast to top international markets.
The economic impact from the show’s tourism contributes to over $21.8 million to the NSW economy.