The Opportunity
The summer Omicron outbreak hit the Adelaide CBD hard in early 2022, prompting a City of Adelaide $7.5 million rescue package to support the city’s recovery. Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA), council’s subsidiary, was charged with administering a range of business supports, including issuing 25,000 x $30 vouchers to encourage visitors into CBD and North Adelaide restaurants and cafes.
With the ‘$30 Eats’ vouchers to be allocated in an online ballot, our brief was to run a consumer launch that would drive ballot registrations and ensure all 25,000 vouchers could be allocated to maximise the potential benefit to participating hospitality operators.
Success rested entirely on the efforts of PR, with no advertising spend allocated to the campaign.
Our Approach
Having successfully launched two similar AEDA voucher campaigns, we harnessed our prior learnings and media expertise to devise a publicity and influencer marketing approach that focused on:
- generating widespread mainstream and lifestyle media coverage across print, online, radio and TV from morning to night on launch day
- creating a ready-to-use content package for lifestyle and family focused news websites
- driving consumers to the online registration form through influencer partnerships selected to gain wide reach into South Australians’ personal social media feeds with a mix of supplied and user-generated content.
The Outcome
By close of business on launch day, AEDA had secured its target of 25,000 vouchers. In fact, 45 South Australians registered per minute in the first 24 hours, amassing close to 100,000 registrations over 12 days.
Publicity and influencer marketing outcomes spanned:
- More than 600 local and national media mentions, including a front-page Advertiser story and segments on all four TV news bulletins, with a combined PR value of approximately $6.6 million
- Reaching more than 500,000 South Australians via 10 influencers who published a total of 24 posts on Facebook and Instagram during the 12-day registration period and earning record engagement
Most importantly, voucher redemption and secondary spend injected $1.2 million into the city hospitality sector, creating a 2:1 return on investment. Approximately 86% of participating businesses said the vouchers delivered a positive impact on their trading, with 78% saying it brought new customers through their doors.
