Brand USA’s major television campaign with Channel 7’s Sunrise is the most successful in the group’s history in Australia, according to bureau’s head, generating a major increase in recent bookings.
In September, the tourism bureau joined the breakfast television show to create a series of USA road trip videos showcasing five different US cities – Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Miami and New York – in five days.
On the Saturday and Sunday, Weekend Sunrise, weather broadcast from Portland and Cannon Beach in Oregon, resulting in seven days of live breakfast television from six different U.S. destinations, with the broadcasts reaching over two million Australians.
Coinciding with the campaign, Flight Centre also ran a month-long national retail campaign, leveraging the publicity to generate bookings.
Now according to the agency’s first post campaign results, bookings to the US have increased 22 percent over the past three months compared to the same time last year.
Brand USA Australia and New Zealand director Oliver Philpot described it as the most successful campaign in Australia and says it sets the scene for future promotions.
“All destination partners who featured in the broadcast saw an increase in bookings, but most interestingly, the broadcast also had a strong impact on generating visitor dispersal – even those destinations that didn’t feature directly have received benefits.”
Oliver Philpot, Brand USA Australia and New Zealand director
Mr Philpot said Australia’s annual visitation to the US has also increased year-on-year by 6.7 percent. He expects the recent campaign to drive a record year in travel to the US.
This month, Brand USA took 47 Australian and New Zealand travel agents to the US on a mega famil called ‘MegaFam’.
The group flew to Dallas together on 10 November, but were split upon arrival to visit five different destinations – Tennessee, New York, Utah, Denver and Washington.
Read more about their visit to Dallas and see pictures here.
