Marketing: How Tourism Australia reaches Millennials - 8th October 2017

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Tourism Australia launched its latest $5 million youth-focused campaign on Friday.
Tourism Australia

by Lisa Ronson

As marketers, we get very excited about Millennials – or Generation Y. And with good reason.

According to Goldman Sachs, they represent a much larger demographic than the two generations that went before. In the US alone, there are 92 million millennials versus 61 million Generation X and 77 million Baby Boomers.

But does sheer size mean we need to move away from the marketing fundamentals to treat this latest generation of consumers, born between 1982 and 1997, as a homogenous group of individuals?

There is obviously big business in helping to unlock the value of the Millennial generation, but what does that mean in reality for the marketing community? We've always had a tendency to define and describe entire generations by all-encompassing characteristics, probably more so than ever with Millennials.

Apparently, this 1.8 billion global cohort are all "tech savvy" and "self-absorbed", they'll never buy a house (because they will live with their parents forever) or own a car, they hate advertising and can smell our marketing "bs" a mile off.

Such generalisations may be a tad extreme, but what is undeniable is the value of this audience, right now and into the future. But in chasing the opportunity we must not abandon marketing fundamentals and make the mistake of treating this generation as if they're somehow all the same.

That's a gross over-simplification that only leads to incorrect marketing decisions.

Trying to be all things to all people within this generation results in meaning little to anyone. Targeting purely on the basis of demographics is a trap and one that so many marketers fall in to daily. It assumes – wrongly – that consumers that share the same age or country, occupation or gender are like-minded. That they will respond to and engage with the same content and, ultimately, make similar purchasing decisions.

And this is where the "bs" does indeed come into the marketing equation.

What is far more powerful in defining our target audiences and the segments that we market to is the groups of consumers that feel, think, engage and respond in a similar fashion. Attitudes are always far more powerful in determining future behaviours than demographic stereotypes.

These are the determining factors that set apart one segment of consumers from another. At Tourism Australia, our key target audience is defined by a core set of attitudes and behaviours. Millennials are a significant contributor, accounting for 46 per cent of the value of the audience.

Is it purely because they were born between 1982 and 1997 and happen to be labelled as Millennial? No. It's because their attitudes and propensity to travel to Australia make them statistically more likely to visit and spend more in our economy. In short, a far more valuable segment to our tourism industry and for us to market to.

What we do need to consider is how we reach them and the tone of voice we employ to engage them. They have grown up with social, and have been part of the two-way conversation with brands. As per marketing fundamentals, we still need to engage them with compelling content that appeals and elicits an emotional reaction.

At Tourism Australia we are very fortunate and in the almost unique position that we sit in a marketing category where our target audience value and prioritise travel. More importantly, they respond extremely well to what destination Australia has to offer.

Last Friday we launched Aussie News Today, our latest youth campaign. The campaign is targeted to our core audience and lives in channels that the younger end of the segment engages with. Social by design and curated by youth, we aim to reach young people where they are consuming their news – in their social feeds.

The campaign is authentic, quirky and funny. And credible too, because it's largely young international travellers, working holiday makers, Australian youth operators and our Friends of Australia network who are telling and selling our youth story. But while the focus in on a younger audience, it still largely plays to the key pillars that underpin our destination appeal and our marketing – great food and wine, our beautiful aquatic and coastal experiences, and our unique nature and wildlife.

We have worked with partners like Buzzfeed, Facebook, Google to develop the campaign, based on their insights whilst also and drawing upon learnings from our own social channels and market research.

This is the point. We can't be so besotted by one generation or demographic group that we suddenly forget about the fundamentals of good marketing – a journey which, to be successful, needs to begin with real insight about your target segment which can be articulated into emotionally engaging content.

Lisa Ronson is chief marketing officer of Tourism Australia

(The Australian Financial Review)