‘PERTH IS OPEN’
Communications campaign: strategy and execution
The Brief
As WA proudly entered Phase 3 of easing Covid-19 restrictions, retail and hospitality venues across the Perth CBD flung open their doors ready to trade – but their customers were nowhere to be seen!
City of Perth and Chamber of Commerce data showed businesses were hurting as people were confused about what was now open and were concerned about catching public transport due to Covid-19. Retailers demanded support from the City of Perth. Hunter was tasked to develop and implement a creative PR-led campaign that encouraged people to return to the City and support small businesses.
Our brief was to create a PR strategy that;
Generated earned media interest and social discussion.
Demonstrated to retailers the City of Perth was supporting them.
Communicated the city was ‘open for business’.
Deliver the plan within two weeks of briefing.
The Objectives
Use multiple media platforms.
Secure positive news coverage by at least one TV news station, in The West Australian and Perth Now.
Create vibrant content that is used on public video screens.
Feature retailers from all major shopping centres to ensure support and sharing of content by those centres.
Implementation within 10 days of strategy approval.
The Strategy
Create emotive, positive, and engaging content.
Given media negativity towards the City executive, use business owners (ambassadors) from a cross section of industries.
Use the key messages ‘Re-visit Perth’, ‘Perth is Open’ and ‘Discounted and free parking options are available’.
Create a dynamic overarching campaign video and four shorter videos representing targeted segments including ‘Food and Beverage’, ‘Fashion and Footwear’, ‘Lifestyle and Homewares’ and ‘Entertainment and Attractions’ for sharing with media, use on owned social channels and social sharing.
Professional photography of every ambassador for use on owned channels and for media use.
Create a social content calendar featuring the photography and videography with the use of the hashtag #revisitperth and #perthisopen.
Have the campaign video screened on large digital screens throughout the city free of charge for the launch week.
Partner with all major shopping centres in the CBD (e.g. JLL, CBRE, Dexus and Brookfield) to encourage their sharing of the content.
Create a media call in the heart of the CBD on June 25 at which ‘ambassadors’ gather to view the campaign for the first time on a major public digital screen.
The Results
As Seven-West is the WA media leader (by reach and number of outlets), we gave an ‘exclusive’ story and photo to The West to run on the day of the launch. We also provided Sunrise an ‘exclusive’ first run of the campaign video and access to an ambassador.
The campaign video and photography was released on launch morning to all media targets including TV, radio, print, and online. Media opportunities were tailored to our 12 ambassadors who had been briefed about campaign key messages and objectives. Our pitch focussed on a campaign led by small business owners rather than the City – which resonated well with media.
Every media outlet was then invited to a 30-minute media call at Yagan Square in the heart of the city where the campaign video was revealed on the public digital screen and viewed by the 12 ambassadors for the first time. Ambassadors then did interviews with TV, print and radio journalists in attendance.
We engaged a photographer who took a photo of the ambassadors in front of the video screen, which was sent to print and online media unable to attend. This was used by online media.
Ambassadors were provided with the video to share on their social networks and use the campaign hashtags.
The campaign dominated the media cycle on launch day and coverage was achieved across all major commercial TV networks including 7, 9 and 10. Every major WA print and digital outlet ran the campaign and featured either the supplied video or photography (or both).
The campaign was also picked up nationally and ran in the likes of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
In 2020, Hunter Communications took out the national award for 'PRIA Consumer Campaign' for the Revisit Perth, We're Open campaign.