Travel Portland is flipping destination marketing on its beanie-wearing head with a new campaign launching today featuring Dom and Adrian, aka Christiaan Van Vuuren and Nick Boshier, aka the Bondi Hipsters.
Over a series of eight episodes dropped over a five-week period on Facebook and YouTube, viewers will get to follow the pair on their pilgrimage to Portland – the city that’s “cool af” and their inspirational mecca to explore new business ventures and outcool the Portland locals.
“Portland as a destination is anything but traditional,” said Ajay Date, vice president of marketing for Travel Portland, the city’s destination marketing organisation. “So, we want to tell our story in a way that really stands out for potential travellers. The Bondi Hipsters are the perfect partners to get the message across in an entertaining way. We hope travellers will come away with a better understanding of Portland without the hard sell that often comes along with travel marketing.”
A music video style episode will kick off the campaign. It provides glimpses into the journey to come as the Bondi Hipsters riff about “Heading to Portland to be a creator, maker, originator … designer, founder, generator.”
In the following instalments, the pair will showcase the city as they look to take what’s cool and make it better, forging new paths as winemakers (collabs not blends!), fashionistas – with their new “Nuclear Winter” designer line, zealot baristas with strict standards of behaviour, craft brewers with a questionable brand and donut makers baking “don’t nuts.”
Along the way they meet a collection of Portland locals who “organically” reveal that the city’s cool factor is ultimately bigger than the two of them.
The US is a “must-see” holiday choice for travellers from Australia and New Zealand – still ranking #1 as the most visited long-haul destination.
“We know that the culture of a city and its people influence their travel choices, so we wanted to really bring that to the forefront,” said Date. “Our goal is to make Portland shine as a US travel destination to consider, showcasing its thriving creative community in all things food, craft beer, wine, coffee, music and design.”
The campaign has been devised by strategic content and creative company, Go Collaborate, working with Barking Owl Communications who became the lead agency for the destination in February of this year with a three-pronged strategy – trade, PR and direct to consumer – to put Portland on the radar for Australian and New Zealand travellers.
Co-founder of Go Collaborate, Fiona King, curated a seriously experienced production crew, all eager to work with the Bondi Hipsters who were most recently seen on ABC’s Soul Mates.
Bruce Walters, creator of Avalon Now, directed the campaign working closely on the ground in Portland with the talented David Cress and Kevin Sullivan, the highly regarded local producers behind a range of successful movies and TV shows including Portlandia.
The campaign will be supported by a digital media investment across search, display, video, direct marketing and social media platforms ensuring that it is maximised to build awareness of Portland and engage as many target travellers as possible.
Flight Centre has also come on board to help extend the message and is the call to action point for a competition that will run alongside the campaign offering consumers the chance to win a trip for two to Portland following in the Bondi Hipsters’ footsteps and staying in the hip and newly expanding Jupiter Hotel.
“We are so excited to see the reaction to the Bondi Hipsters taking the next step on their journey and meeting their Portland counterparts,” said Date. “Once people have watched Dom and Adrian take on Portland, we hope they will come and experience the city for themselves.”
