Airlie Beach drives into new markets with billboard campaign
Wed 23 Jan 2013
Airlie Beach as a renowned destination, smiling faces and a community culture so much so that is regularly the envy of other similar towns. An inspiring marketing campaign created by Skal Whitsundays (a branch of a global tourism club) championed by Mark Bell, General Manager of Airlie Beach Hotel is about to hit the streets... Quite literally.
With the aim of leaving no doubt for tourists driving the length of the Bruce Highway, a sometimes cheeky set of billboards will feature iconic images and clever bylines in advance of the invitation to turn off at Proserpine to Airlie Beach. "Coffee and Donuts ahead" accompanies boats doing circles at Whitehaven Beach, while "Wet conditions ahead" tags a bikini girl being splashed by friends image.
The combination of road works, declined post GFC backpacker numbers, challenges to Australian holiday affordability and an Airlie Beach main street under repair combine to place Airlie Beach at a low ebb in its tourist and financial success... and in typical fashion, Airlie Beach is helping itself through the valuable focus of the Skal Whitsundays Club.
Importantly the campaign will be focused on the name Airlie Beach, which apparently to respond to recent formal data that places the name "Airlie Beach" in the top ten destinations in Australia. The recent findings serve to reinforce what is also anecdotally known about the name Airlie Beach. The writer's own travels have surprised that handing over a drivers license at a car rental counter in Frankfurt gathers a response from the bright eyed young lass of "O Airlie Beach, I so want to go and live in Airlie Beach. It was my favourite place in Australia."
It is thus great to see that there is now efforts affoot to independantly group and promote a location, a town and a culture, the Airlie Beach that we are so proud to call our own.
Attached to this story is some of the billboard concepts and a pre-recorded video interview with Mark Bell, General Manager of Airlie Beach Hotel. Mark specifically credits creative efforts from Ralph and Janet Hogan along with Zest.
