The Great Tropical Drive - Organisational Management & Public Relations

The Project

The Great Tropical Drive is a self-drive and fly/drive tourism product covering the North Queensland region from the Burdekin to Cooktown and is co-operatively promoted by Townsville Enterprise Ltd and Tourism Tropical North Queensland. Balfour Consulting was engaged for the initial six months of the campaign to:

Assist with brand creation and online communications strategies.

Manage program resources and outcomes to ensure that domestic and international (NZ, Germany and the UK) PR consultancies delivered all campaign outcomes against budget.

Launch the product and promote it in the local regional market.

Provide support to the interstate and international consultancies.

Develop and produce corporate communications and external stakeholder communications, including with local government, local tourism organisations and visitor information centres.

Develop management templates for and coordinate familiarisation visits by national and international journalists.

Undertake succession planning by organising a management and inheritance framework for the indefinite continuation of the campaign.

The Results

Balfour Consulting:

• Worked closely with the website developer in overseeing photo shoots and copy development.
• Planned and implemented the national launch of the Great Tropical Drive by the Federal Minister for Tourism at Mission Beach, which was held five weeks after Cyclone Larry hit and was the first positive news story from the area, receiving wide coverage in national print, radio and television media.
• Developed a local/regional communications and promotions program that included specific projects with regional media, eg. a two-week promotion in the Townsville Bulletin published 20 full pages of colour maps, photographs and detailed descriptions of the major loops making up the Great Tropical Drive.
• Developed management templates covering all areas of the campaign, including journalist familiarisation tours, reporting procedures and accountability processes/programs, as well as undertaking performance management of the PR agencies engaged for the project and organising familiarisation programs for local/regional and visiting journalists.
• Worked closely with regional tourism organisations and operators to promote the campaign and encourage participation in marketing and promotional activities.
• Managed supervisory and reporting processes throughout the first six months of the campaign.
• Developed a succession plan as required.

Posted in Case Studies on Saturday, 07 April 2012