Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane residents can expect to see a lot of LA in the coming months (and we don’t mean the Oscars) as the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board (LA Tourism) launches the latest – and potentially most eye-catching – iteration of its Now Playing campaign in Australia.
Kicking off in Australia and New Zealand this week, the promotional campaign will see LA-based artists undertake works in Australia’s three largest cities, with high-impact public transport placements and murals among the initiatives aiming to inspire travel to the City of Angels.
In Sydney, LA Tourism will hope to captivate audiences through a specially built bus shelter in Newtown, which marks the centenary of the Hollywood Sign, and a high-impact Light Rail wrap – both in partnership with Visit California.
From 11-24 March, St Kilda (Melbourne) will also host a specially built shelter – coinciding with the Melbourne Grand Prix – along with wraps on Melbourne trams in February, courtesy of artist Steven Harrington.
In Fortitude Valley (Brisbane), artist Mister Cartoon has created an LA-inspired mural until 5 March.
Elsewhere, the campaign also features six 15-second spots crafted by Imaginary Forces and complemented by partnerships with Expedia Group ANZ and Urban List.
Launching in various media including out-of-home, display, social, CTV, audio, partner direct and search, the campaign comes as LA Tourism readies for a big year in arts, culture, sports and entertainment – a period in which it expects 420,000 Aussie and Kiwi visitors to descend on the destination.
Overall, Los Angeles anticipates 4.3 million overseas visitors this year, which would reflect 93.8 per cent of 2019 international tourism levels.
AU/NZ focus
“In 2024, our City of Angels is well-positioned to achieve new milestones as we continue focusing on tourism recovery, particularly from Aussie and Kiwi travellers,” LA Tourism President and CEO Adam Burke says.
“While full recovery of inbound overseas visitation is not expected until 2025, we’re seeing strong demand from a number of key international markets.
“We are committed to providing visitors and our travel trade partners with updates on all the exciting new attractions in LA.
“The launch of our refreshed ‘Now Playing’ campaign will help us accelerate the pace of recovery and support the hundreds of local businesses who depend on tourism for their livelihoods.”
Biggest ever campaign
When it first launched, the Now Playing campaign marked the largest ever advertising spend in any international market by LA Tourism, not to mention the largest advertising spend in Australia by a US city tourism office. This commitment backed the notion that the Australian market could become not just the biggest market in the Asia-Pacific region, but the biggest market anywhere.
According to LA Tourism, the campaign has now resulted in over $2 billion in additional direct spending in Los Angeles. Even for an affluent city like LA, that’s a lot of moolah.
“LA Tourism’s ‘Now Playing’ campaign has been the organisation’s most successful to date, and we’re proud to continue to leverage the creative to venture into new international target markets,” LA Tourism Senior Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing Bill Karz said.
“Our approach with this launch allows us to showcase our incredible destination authentically, through the eyes of Angelenos themselves.”
Read all about a recent Visit California famil to Los Angeles and SoCal with United Airlines.
