Visit Victoria shows the world why Victoria is ‘Every bit different’ in global campaign via AJF
Visit Victoria has unveiled a new destination brand for the State – including a new brand platform, global tourism campaign and visual identity – to continue to drive record growth of the Victorian visitor economy.
Created with agency AJF Partnership, the new brand platform Every bit different showcases the breadth of experiences across Victoria and highlights the feelings that these experiences evoke; a feeling that is uniquely Victorian.
Recent data revealed tourism spending in Victoria hit a record high of $36.9 billion in the year ending September 2023 – a staggering $27.1 billion increase since the year ending March 2021 (Tourism Research Australia).
The new brand creates a unifying and differentiated platform for long-term activation for the Victorian tourism industry.
The campaign aims to drive preference for Melbourne and regional Victoria by showcasing the State’s diverse and unique experiences. From the bustling laneways and arts precincts of Melbourne, to the grandeur of the Grampians and the Mornington Peninsula, the campaign captures the feeling that only Victoria offers.
Supported by a brand and campaign strategy which has been led by the Visit Victoria marketing team, the platform brings together some of the most creative and strategic minds in Victoria.
Central to developing the new brand framework, built in conjunction with branding agency Principals, was engagement with the Victorian tourism industry.
Says Shae Keenan, chief marketing officer, Visit Victoria: “We wanted to make sure we captured the input from our industry partners across Victoria. They deliver our brand day in day out, and their insights helped us to inform our strategic approach – from rational to emotional.”
Off the back of the development of the brand framework, Visit Victoria worked with creative agency AJF to develop a new consumer-facing brand platform for long-term activation – Every bit different.
The new campaign aims to create an even stronger platform that brings trade, partners, providers, operators, and regional destinations together under one brand of communications to intrastate, interstate and international audiences.
The brand platform is designed to communicate the breadth of world-class experiences available to visitors, while focusing on the feelings they elicit, rather than the products alone. The new brand will ensure marketing communications from Visit Victoria will be delivered under one enduring brand.
The first iteration of the brand platform is being launched through a multi-channel campaign during the 2024 Australian Open – reaching local, national and international audiences.
Says Brendan McClements, CEO, Visit Victoria: “It’s no coincidence that Victoria has Australia’s best major events calendar and what better way to launch our campaign than through the global platform of the Australian Open. With around 800,000 spectators at Melbourne Park and millions more watching on from around the world, the AO provides an incredible platform to showcase our experiences, regions and events.”
Says Keenan: “Our relationships with our partners have been collaborative and creative from the start. We knew that establishing Every bit different as a brand platform means that we need to genuinely live our brand and think creatively about everything we do – internally and externally – and that’s exactly what we have done.”
Says Scott Walker, executive creative director, AJF Partnership: “For a Melbourne-based agency there could be no greater challenge, or honour, than to be given the chance to sell our home to the world. Visit Victoria was keen to do something that broke tourism category conventions and with Every bit different we feel we have created something that does just that. We avoided simply showing every different bit and instead, told compelling short stories that proudly show the true soul of Victoria.”
The campaign is accompanied by an intricate media plan that delivers multiple videos to unique audiences to demonstrate what’s special about Victoria.
The campaign films, created by AJF Partnership, leverage Melbourne and Victoria’s creativity in all its forms, including the Cable Ties performing at ‘The Gaso’ in a film edit; a showcase of Andrew McConnell’s culinary artistry through campaign location Gimlet; the contribution of campaign director Tom Campbell of Good Oil plus contributions from Directors Jordan Watton and Tony Briggs; and the campaign music, composed by Joe Walker from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
With awareness being a key media metric, Visit Victoria will activate the campaign through strategic
investment in high-reach communications channels to deliver on its campaign objective to drive preference for Victoria.
Says Keenan: “Working with our media partner, OMD, we applied a principle for activation that ‘if it is off the shelf, it is off the table’. This meant that we challenged ourselves and our media partners to look for new and innovative ways to launch the campaign across broadcast content, in-venue activation and across digital broadcast assets.”
The launch campaign will see first-to-market media tactics for the tourism category, such as augmented reality communications overlaid at the end of an ad break during the Australian Open broadcast.
To meet awareness objectives, Visit Victoria will target mass audiences through media placements including broadcast TV, BVOD, OOH/DOOH, social media including a TikTok takeover, and alongside earned media. Visit Victoria will also be leveraging sponsorship of popular events and content such as the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, AFL, and MasterChef, as well as collaborating with media providers that reach diverse audiences such as via JOY FM and Chinese social media including WeChat, Little Red Book and Douyin.
In the Victorian State Budget, the Victorian Government provided Visit Victoria with an overall investment of $32.5 million for 2023-2024 for marketing activities to grow Victoria’s visitor economy and achieve economic ambitions through visitation and tourism expenditure.
The most recent data from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) showed that visitor expenditure in Victoria hit a record high of $36.9 billion in the year ending September 2023.
A recent independent report, commissioned by Visit Victoria, valued Victoria’s major events calendar at $3.3 billion per annum – up from $2.5 billion in 2018.
Client: Visit Victoria
Creative Agency: AJF Partnership
Film Production: Tom Campbell / Good Oil
Film Production 2nd Unit: Jordan Watton / Good Oil
Narrm Film Production: Tony Briggs / Typecast
Photography: Shannyn Higgins and Justin Kane
Composer: Joe Walker
Sound: Rumble
Post Production: The Editors
Media Agency: OMD
Visual Identity Agency: Us+Us
51 Comments
This ad implies you can have friends in Victoria
The vibe feels right for Vic
at least it’s a refreshing perspective and not from the same stable of shockers that came one after the other post Isabel Lucas’ Daylesford days
There’s that VO again. Nissan, Uber Eats, Flatmates, this… I’m sure there’s others
Doesn’t really capture anything that makes Victoria unique so not sure how it will sell the state overseas.
Quite average on the strategy & planning front. What’s the insight? But enjoy the execution/production quality though. Not bad. But not great.
Or everywhere.
Average work Amazing state hard brief though
When you look at what Victoria has done over the last decade, this is honestly the only thing I have seen that captures the crazy different parts of the experience.
It ain’t perfect but it’s pretty bloody good, especially considering what you have to go through on any government client to get work into the world
Got to say, I love the vibe of the 15’s.
They all feel very different & it’s a clever way to try and capture the essence of a place that has so many different aspects to it
Needs more rubber bullets.
and those 15″ films are very good if there’s enough of them
I spent time in Melbourne over the holidays and these shorter films got me right in the feels with the night out and the gig
I want to see more of the gig
Are there more singular 15s and longer versions of the 15s??
if only Sydney had this night life it would be the perfect city
As someone who has worked on Visit Vic multiple times in my career and nearly had it be the end of me every time, getting something made that feels fresh and different is an accomplishment. Well done to everyone involved across agency and client alike
And that’s about it.
There is always ways stuff could be better or things you might have done differently but this is one of those things that after looking at all the bits I just get a good, happy feeling about it all
Stop spelling black without the ‘c’.
It’s try hard and cringey,just like most of this campaign.
Also belongs to others.
Hands off.
Idea, insight?
This could be anywhere.
What a wasted opportunity.
As a Victorian, I really like this work and I think it’ll sell. It’s distinct in the category and it is true to who we are. Nice work Visit Vic and AJF
Saw 3 different OOH assets on my walk from work to station (Sydney), they all looked rlly good, good media buy / planning
Grow up and google it.
Great work and nice thinking to lean into the vibe of Melbourne and Victoria… and a nice nod to ‘You’ll love every piece…”
Really good a different work in this category – nice work AJF and Client.
This is doing at awesome job at capturing the vibe of this awesome state – hats off to all involved
The magic is in the suite of 15 second tv spots – they really capture the full gamut of what Victoria has to offer. And that’s not an easy thing to have done.
really love this – beautifully produced, cool typography and great music. Very adaptable platform too! Congrats AJF
these are great, go Tom
Wait a second, they have lane ways in Melbourne?
I am a Victorian and I think the advertising campaign is terrible , actually embarrassing
I look at other states and see beautiful country side , attractions etc that make you want to go there
We do weird costumes sitting at Pelligrinies , creatures , head shots of people laughing having a great time “where”
Termed “different” who agreed to this advertising campaign?
,
A sweaty person playing guitar.Another person wearing an interesting jacket.People in costumes.Others running together down a street.And one guy who appears to be visiting the Blue mountains.And that’s just the print.Don’t get me started on the films.
Different sameness, same difference. When the destination and the bytes of destination marketing campaigns start to look the same with very little différance you can always promote an imaginary point of difference: “Every Bit Different” (TM pending).
Don’t just talk about being different,show you are.
These images don’t.
Depressingly generic.
So kudos to the agency.
This client needs to learn about consistency, however.
Every ‘Visit Melbourne’ and ‘Visit Victoria’ campaign (which I believe are two different clients, just to muddy the waters) looks completely different.
Government employees/clients often disdain marketing, see it as Right Wing and beneath them, and therefore often have no idea what they’re doing.
Hence constant change… we need something new!
This campaign will do what it does. But expect it to be completely different next year.
What I’d expect
genuinely funny to see people complaining about ‘somewhere that looks like the blue mountains’
If you don’t know that Victoria has the grampians and that is how spectacular they are, then clearly the ad is doing the right job.
Me likes the 15″s.
Are tourists still allowed to visit the Grampians ?
Best stuff I have seen in terms of Victoria selling itself. The 15’s are brilliant and the whole thing captures the varied and crazy different aspects of the state the make selling it in one, coherent campaign so hard.
My girlfriend was desperate to see Melbourne’s supposedly famous laneways.What a disappointment.Over hyped and grubby.
Liked Gertrude street though,
Honestly, Melbourne only has a ‘good’ music scene by Australian standards, primarily thanks to Sydney being so rubbish. You would find better nightlife in Pittsburgh.
Lane-wayrs are soer derp durde.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxZiae16Ry8
The entire scope of this thing is working for me – the 15’s, the singular focus of each of the ads, the general vibe. Honestly, as a Melbournian I love it
‘…as a Melbournian I love it’.
Therein lies the problem.You are not the target market.
It’s a trap so many tourism campaigns fall into.
But I love this work
You have given me absolutely no reason to visit Melbourne.
I can see or do any of these things without leaving Brisbane.
Better still there are less wankers.
Where’s da footy at the G?
I am sure all of Victoria will be devastated by the loss of you visit
Melbourne.
Australia’s wannabe Berlin.
But fails miserably.
What a waste of tax payer’s money – could be anywhere ? Boring and dumb campaign. Victoria has so much to offer – why wouldn’t you show it ?
Lived in Victoria my whole life and not one actual point of difference (subtle or otherwise) to any other Australian city/state was obvious to me.
Restaurants, nightclubs, street food, laneways, shopping, hiking, beaches, thermal spas, even concerts!… Gosh, what do the other states have to offer visitors?
It’s piqued my interest in investing my time and money re-discovering some of them just to find out what’s made us so different recently.
For the life of me why have they decided to go rogue on the logo, it looks terrible and they have bastardised a brand asset. maybe I’ve missed something, can someone please explain? Maybe Con?
Now live in SA for work reasons.
This is not the Victoria I tell my new colleagues about.
What a wasted opportunity.
So much more to show and talk about.
Could be wrong, but pretty sure that that was a whole other project by a branding agency and that this is the first time it has been used. So it’s actually not ‘part’ of this campaign, this campaign is just where it is being debuted.