Absolute Radio Promotion with Etihad Airways and Austravel

In October 2008, Tourism Victoria ran a two week radio promotion on Absolute Radio to launch the new direct Etihad flights.

The promotion incorporated one week of pre-promotion giving out destination information and driving people to visitmelbourne.com, and a microsite and competition on absoluteradio.co.uk with detail pages for Etihad, Austravel and Vist Melbourne.

The two weeks of the actual promotion involved cult DJ Christian O’Connell giving listeners the chance to win a trip to Melbourne if they were able to predict the outcome of calls that were made to various Melbournians. Each day key aspects of Victoria were featured and listeners driven to the website for another chance to win a trip to Melbourne.

Five sixty-second features were created and broadcast during the competition week, and the promotion received a permanent presence on the absoluteradio.co.uk homepage and freebies page, directing visitors to a Tourism Victoria, Austravel and Etihad Airways branded microsite designed and built by Absolute Radio.

This online activity was extended to run from 08th October to 23rd October and was supported by inclusion in the Absolute radio newsletter sent out to over 270,000 listeners.

The promotion was supported by a call to action to TUI, one of the UK’s leading vertically integrated tour operators with strong Australia brands (Austravel, Travelmood, and Thomson Australia brand) as well as providing High Street distribution via the First Choice and Thomson retail networks. TUI’s current passenger volume to Australia is approx 80,000 pax p.a. This partnership provided a strong call to action and conversion, and also provided partners with the opportunity to raise awareness for Etihad Airways and Melbourne through staff training and sales incentives.

The promotion generated over ₤132,000 worth of media coverage and the competition received nearly double the number of entries most Absolute promotions receive.