Avid Collective will for the first time share insights on how travel and tourism brands can reach the millions of Aussies planning trips this year, via its new native content masterclass.
Lead image: Luke Spano, managing director, Avid Collective
According to recent Nielsen data, a majority of Australians have travel firmly in their sights for 2024/2025. 76 per cent said they were planning on taking a trip domestically in the next 12 months, while more than half (52 per cent) have their eye on an overseas destination.
Avid Collective has partnered with publishers We Are Explorers, and Are Media’s Gourmet Traveller, to leverage Aussies’ thirst for travel, hosting its first-ever travel and tourism content masterclass.
The masterclass, to be held in Sydney on June 13, is designed to share valuable insights for travel marketers on how to maximise content partnerships to ensure their brand are at the top of Australians’ travel plans, with insights from leading national tourism publishers, along with case studies from travel brands that have conducted successful native content campaigns.
Guest speakers, including Gourmet Traveller deputy editor, Anna McCooe, We Are Explorers managing director, Tim Ashelford, and sales and partnerships manager, Julie Aebi, will share their insights on the power of native content, while Destination Gold Coast former head of marketing, Dion Workman, will discuss how the brand used native content to reposition the Gold Coast as a travel destination for all Australians.
Destination Gold Coast successfully harnessed native content to change long-held perceptions of the Queensland tourism hot spot. Widely known as a mecca for school holiday family tourists and ‘schoolies’, Destination Gold Coast teamed up with a range of publishers to shift perceptions of the Gold Coast, helping to drive bookings outside peak season, and with a broader audience set.
The Destination Gold Coast team worked with Avid Collective to create 370 content pieces across 39 publishers in just 12 months, reaching the publishers’ desired audience demographic to promote the Gold Coast’s broad experiences across adventure, friends, culinary, romance and relaxation.
Luke Spano, managing director at Avid Collective, said the Destination Gold Coast case study was just one example of the potential return-on-investment of a tourism-led native content campaign.
“The format of native content allows brands to create a more informative, educative, and emotive message than traditional mediums. Marketers can truly shape their brand story and speak directly to their target audience, which is critical when you’re trying to shift perceptions or reach new markets, rather than just hammer sales,” said Spano.
“Through this content masterclass, we’re hoping to share our industry-leading knowledge around native content and why it’s so critical for tourism and travel brands. Post-pandemic, travel is firmly back on the agenda for most Australians and they’re actively looking for both domestic and overseas locations to visit. For travel brands, the challenge is how to cut-through and reach travellers while they’re planning their trips, and native content is the perfect way to stand out from the crowd,” added Spano.
“This masterclass is an opportunity for the Avid Collective team to share their collective knowledge and help tourism and travel brands develop more effective campaigns. Professional development is a space we’ve long been keen to explore, and we’re hoping to roll out similar masterclasses across a range of industry verticals”.
The tourism content masterclass will be held on Thursday, June 13 from 4pm to 5.30pm in Surry Hills for tourism and travel marketing agencies and brands.
