Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council – Treasure Trail Campaign for Economic Recovery
Summary of initiative
Queanbeyan-Palarang Regional Council (QPRC) responded to impacts from the 2019-20 bushfire season by developing the Treasure Trail campaign. The project provides a multi-faceted economic recovery campaign developed to increase destination awareness, tourist visitation and expenditure, industry capacity and support business resilience planning. The campaign also offered a competitive grants program for short-term business improvement activities.
Background
The Treasure Trail campaign was developed in the immediate aftermath of the 2019-20 bushfire season which had a devastating impact on the Queanbeyan-Palerang region, in particular the highway towns of Bungendore and Braidwood.
The closure of the Kings Highway for eight weeks during the emergency response and early recovery phase coincided with the peak summer holiday tourist season. Some estimates suggest this resulted in a $20m loss of trade across the Queanbeyan-Palerang region.[1]
With some local businesses reporting an 80 per cent decline in revenue, the Business & Innovation branch of QPRC responded by developing the Treasure Train campaign to assist recovery and build resilience in the local business community.
Implementation
The campaign concept was developed in partnership between QPRC and marketing agency Coordinate which supported the local business community with a significant pro bono contribution to help with recovery efforts.
QPRC provided financial support and staff resources to help implement the Treasure Trail campaign together with Coordinate, leveraging existing client relationships to support the campaign. This included additional support such as airtime from broadcast partners, audio production, print advertising space and talent from modeling agencies.
QPRC engaged with third party training providers to help small businesses grow and benefit from industry development opportunities.
Outputs
Destination branding
The Treasure Trail campaign concept filled a key gap in destination branding for Queanbeyan‑Palerang. The region remained largely unexplored and had an abundance of ‘hidden gems’ waiting to be uncovered and experienced.
Marketing campaign
A series of seasonal tactical campaigns were developed and executed under the Treasure Trail brand. They focused on key content pillars from the QPRC Tourism Plan 2017-2025 and targeted increased conversion of potential visitors, greater regional dispersal and increased spending from in‑market visitors. The campaign was highly visible in key target markets such as the NSW South Coast, NSW Riverina and the greater Canberra region.
Retail spend promotion
The existing annual Shop Local campaign for Bungendore and Braidwood was rebranded to generate additional benefits by leveraging the Treasure Trail campaign. This portion of the campaign sought a greater share of the Canberra day trip/short break segment with the promise of unique and eclectic retail and dining experiences.
Industry Development Program
As part of an industry development program, QPRC provided the local business community with the know-how needed to maximise benefits from the Treasure Trail campaign. Development opportunities included digital marketing training, marketing roundtables, business mentoring sessions and a grants program offering up to $3,000 per project for local businesses to identify and execute solutions as part of their own recovery/resilience plan.
Outcomes and results
The major in-market activation was the Treasure Trail: Shop & Win promotion, held throughout Spring 2020. This promotion achieved over 23,000 entries, 47,000 website views, 21,000 social media impressions. Most significantly, the local retail community recorded a 19.7 per cent increase in revenue from the same period in 2019.[2]
The Treasure Trail campaign has enhanced QPRC’s economic development and tourism programs by facilitating:
- a more resilient and future-focused small business community
- stronger relationships with a broader range of local businesses
- an engaged business community who are keen to leverage opportunities
- a tourism marketing campaign with significant potential for longevity
- greater destination awareness and penetration in key target markets
- a strong, innovative team with shared achievements and values
- established partnerships with new suppliers including marketing agencies, graphic designers, influencers, content creators, photographers and videographers
- an engaged elected Council who are supportive of continued investment in tourism and the regional economy.
Costs and Funding
The project was funded by combining the Austrade Regional Tourism Bushfire Recovery grant, pro bono contributions from local suppliers, QPRC funding advertising airtime, tactical marketing campaigns, business resilience programs, small business grants and staff resources.
Key Learnings
The local business community had been decimated by ongoing drought and the devastating 2019-20 bushfire season. The proactive establishment of the recovery working group in the immediate aftermath of the fires ensured council staff were well placed to identify early opportunities.
A key learning was to be prepared to act early on opportunities which follow adversity. On this occasion the opportunities were corporate goodwill and government grants which helped QPRC to provide a meaningful short-term response to meet community needs.
It was essential to ensure consultation occurred throughout the development and execution of the project with all stakeholders. Having an engaged business community with inclusive relationships was crucial to the success of economic development and business recovery programs.
Other relevant information
Project evaluation was a critical component of the Treasure Trail campaign. It was important to have measurable and meaningful data at hand to support time and financial commitments made by various stakeholders.
QPRC relied on expenditure data, quantitative and qualitative industry surveys and the extensive research and metrics available from various government agencies conducted as part of the broader government response. Another benefit of the project was the improvement and formalisation of assessment, analysis and reporting of economic development outcomes within council.
[1] SOURCE: Destination Southern NSW, 2020
[2] SOURCE: Spendmapp
Council Details
Population size: 62,239
LGA size: 5319 km2
State Electorate: Monaro
Federal Electorate: Eden-Monaro