Why 303 Mullenlowe and Medialab’s Adventurous Western Australian Girls Are ‘the Actual Deal’

This July, Western Australians had been handled to an journey on their shoreline. 4 fun-loving ladies set off throughout the South West Edge in a van, and, over twelve days, explored all of the unusual and fantastic issues it has to supply.

Bernie, Sandy, Roz, and Lisa are a mannequin, a costumer, an actress, and an artist respectively. They’re hardly a bland group of travellers. However their explicit fashion of quirky enjoyable is emblematic of the South West Edge – a area recognized for its colourful characters and eccentric communities. 

303 Mullenlowe Perth labored with Medialab to create a marketing campaign centred round these grande dames and their distinctive journey, following them by means of a collection of episodic movies, a radio announcer checking in every day, and fixed social updates. The concept was to create a picture of journey throughout the area which was equal components entertaining and actual – and with main girls like this, they couldn’t assist however succeed.

303 MullenLowe planning director, Smiljka Dimitrijevic, government inventive director Richard Berney, and Mediahub media director Kylie Macey spoke with LBB’s Delmar Terblanche about how they designed this dazzlingly distinctive marketing campaign.

LBB> What was the preliminary shopper transient? What impression did they wish to create about their area?

Smiljka> The shopper wished The South West Edge to turn out to be well-known. To be an iconic journey that folks would add to their bucket checklist alongside locations just like the Nice Ocean Street, Nullabor Plain and Route 66. 

The shopper was eager for us to lean into the quintessential West Coast humour to attain that fame. The tone was to be irreverent, playful. We seemed to the Kiwis for inspiration – they do humour so nicely!

LBB> The discharge describes the marketing campaign as specializing in how “the area is stuffed with amazingly quirky characters”. How did you determine to deliver this human-centric model of tourism to life?

Smiljka> Tourism as a class is stuffed with airbrushed, Instagrammable images of younger individuals having a good time in crystal clear waters in opposition to clear blue skies. The photographs might be taken wherever, if it wasn’t for the headline telling us the place. 

We knew we had been a small fish in a giant, crowded pond so wanted a approach to not solely appeal to consideration, but in addition differentiate ourselves. 

Street journeys, by their very nature, are free concepts of what a journey might appear like that by no means pan out fairly as deliberate, as a result of the sprinkling of delights and surprises alongside the way in which take you in surprising instructions. And whereas it’s concerning the vacation spot, it’s extra concerning the journey and what occurs on that journey. 

South West WA has a repute for attention-grabbing characters. Anybody who goes recognises that issues are a bit of completely different down there, with many locals bringing their very own passions to life. 

The locals are what give this area its very particular vibe, so specializing in them not solely felt like one of the best ways to be true to the tourism provide, it additionally occurred to be an awesome class differentiator.

LBB> You point out analysis which reveals “an growing variety of ladies of their 60s and 70s are setting off of their Winnebagos”. What are the numbers? And what are the popular actions and locations to go?

Smiljka> When it comes to statistics, we all know that ladies are accountable for 85% of all journey choices. They do the analysis, they set the path. So, after we set about talking with numerous product and repair suppliers in several cities throughout the state, we additionally discovered a standard theme prevailed, exhibiting the rise in ladies who had been setting off on their very own and with buddies. They had been usually older, eager to reignite their love of life and sense of journey. 

We met just a few of them on our travels of the South West and their very own experiences appeared to corroborate the anecdotal proof – that they had compromised sufficient, they wished to discover what life needed to provide on their very own phrases. Given the uncertainty surrounding flights and border closures, campervans and motorhomes turned their transport of alternative.

LBB> The mission was additionally co-funded by the Australian Authorities’s Restoration for Regional Tourism Program – inform us a bit about this initiative?

Smiljka>  On 27 September 2020, the Australian Authorities introduced a $50 million Restoration for Regional Tourism Fund. This funding was created to assist 9 tourism areas that are closely reliant on worldwide tourism just like the South West. 

Australia’s South West [the client] secured federal funding and set to work alongside Austrade and companions to ship 5 strategic initiatives with a purpose to improve interstate visitation and develop capability throughout the area. 

One of many 5 initiatives was a brand new interstate advertising marketing campaign to boost consciousness of and journey alongside The South West Edge drive route. In different phrases, our Queens on The Edge marketing campaign!

LBB> By way of what “probability conferences” did you discover the 4 Queens? They arrive from such fascinating backgrounds – artist, mannequin, actress, costume designer – inform us a bit about their tales. Are all of them South West Edge locals?

Richard> Early on, the creatives went on the street journey to get into the ‘groove’ of this transient. The deeper they drove en route alongside The South West Edge, the extra locals they met. Each native directed us to a different one with crazier tales, and so it went… till we reached the mecca of alternate residing in Western Australia, Balingup. Three of the ladies had been from there, they usually had been previous buddies who’d lived on this hippy-like group because the seventies. These girls are the true deal.

LBB> The entire inventive has a barely steampunk aesthetic – from the brand recalling the Intercourse Pistols to the 4 girls enjoyable by the river in sem-Victorian gown. What was the considering behind this?

Richard> The aesthetic was guided by the women themselves. They had been sensible, unbiased, and rebellious – they set their very own tone, stated no matter they wished, and guided the overall themes of the journey. The company purposefully didn’t attend the street journey, in order that it wasn’t ‘affected’. As soon as all of the footage was lastly sorted and edited, their theme of rise up emerged – after which we bought to have enjoyable!

LBB> That is clearly a giant manufacturing – what are the primary steps in coordinating a shoot like this?

Richard>  This isn’t a manufacturing fashion for the faint-hearted. This was anti-agency in some ways. As a result of it’s unscripted, the company needed to relinquish many of the inventive management it’s used to. We started with a blue-sky assembly with the manufacturing firm, and requested them how we might really seize a ‘actual street journey’ with out it falling into the tedious tourism tropes.

Three guidelines emerged.

• Give casting the time. 
• Give the shoot time. Make it lengthy, so the ladies can unfurl.
• Don’t come. The company ought to keep residence, and let the documentary truly be a documentary.

Apparently, this was not a big funds. So, to attain longer casting and an extended shoot – we used a skeleton crew and eliminated each shopper and company presence.

LBB> This marketing campaign’s visible fashion clearly owes rather a lot to status non-fiction programming like High Gear – how have you learnt what sort of crew you might want to obtain that look?

Richard> Fairly merely, the crew wanted to mirror the women. Impartial mavericks. Massive manufacturing would break it. 

We would have liked good technicians, who might obtain excessive manufacturing ‘from the hip’ with out many arms to assist. The crew was as small as six, and every particular person was skilled in nuanced documentary movie and images. 

LBB> Inform us a bit about what Dominic Pearce and Sam Harris dropped at the manufacturing as co-directors?

Richard> This complete mission would have been a shadow with out early engagement with Sam Harris. Sam is one in all Australia’s main documentary photographers, and his native data, fashion, and community was a significant driver within the manufacturing’s method. He’s an aesthete and celebrates naturalism with a persistence unfamiliar to business operators. Dom then again was our maverick. A director snug within the chaos, completely rebellious, and was introduced up by one other epic matriarch, his grandmother. Dom was a comedic contact, with the technical know-how for gentle documentary. Sam might see fact and poetry – collectively they stayed simply out of the way in which sufficient to let the Queens shine.

LBB> What had been the highlights and challenges  of the shoot? Do elaborate.

Richard> The challenges: These ladies are older.  We would have liked to allow them to do issues in their very own time. 

The highlights: Identical. These ladies are older. In truth, they’re too previous to care what the company’s agenda is, they don’t give a hoot. Which meant they ‘drank the marrow out of life’ as Sandy put it. The highlights all made the minimize. 

LBB> What was the considering behind Joel Creasy’s involvement on radio? 

Kylie> Street tripping alongside the shoreline and escaping from the norms of on a regular basis life – The Queens on the Edge embody what it means to embrace true freedom. While all of us aspire to be as free and liberated because the Queens, generally life holds us again. Right here lies a chance to present Aussies the nudge they should dwell on the sting.  

Comedy icon, WA bred, assured and quirky, Nova had the right voice to introduce the Queens on the Edge marketing campaign to the Melbourne market.  Unapologetically himself, residing in Melbourne and the host of the Drive program, Joel embodies the Queens’ vitality! He’s fierce, enjoyable, and fabulous. 

Partnering with Nova’s Joel Creasy allowed us to deliver the character of the Queens to the forefront and create broader attraction to the marketing campaign. 

LBB> Speak us by means of the episodic distribution – how did you guarantee continued curiosity over the 12 days of the queens’ roadtrip? Do elaborate in your social marketing campaign methods.

Kylie> The marketing campaign adopted the Queens as they launched into their 12-day street journey journey, with a collection of every day social posts and radio catch ups between the Queens and Joel the place they mentioned their plans for the day. 

Because the Queens’ 12-day journey ended, the marketing campaign was amplified by the discharge of the Queens’ Episodes throughout social media channels, aimed to encourage wanderlust within the viewers following alongside. 

Following the Queens as they skilled their street journey alongside The South West Edge introduced a level of authenticity to this marketing campaign. It gave a platform for the Queens to debate and showcase each wonderful place they visited and the distinctive experiences they encountered alongside the way in which. 

LBB> What benchmarks have been set for comparable narrative campaigns sooner or later? What are a number of the marketing campaign numbers that you could share on its efficiency?

Kylie> Our 12-day social content material collection overdelivered by 20% by way of put up engagement.  The Queens episode movies total delivered 1.96 million video performs reaching 761,413 Victorians who’re meaning to journey. 

LBB> If audiences take one factor away from their time with the 4 queens – what do you hope it is going to be?

Kylie> The Queens are unapologetically themselves; this is without doubt one of the most heart-warming content material collection I’ve seen shortly and The South West Edge street journey is one that everybody ought to get the possibility to expertise.