Across regional Australia, tourism marketing budgets have shrunk and the dependence on volunteer contributions continues to increase.
We know firsthand how destination marketers have been scratching their heads at how best to support their region's operators and other stakeholders in the face of shrinking budgets and overworked volunteers.
It takes the concept of "marketing on the smell of an oily rag" to a whole new level.
The outback destination that could
At WOOF Media we have been supporting the volunteer-run Flinders Ranges and Outback Tourism Marketing Committee Inc. (FRO TMC) for the best part of a decade. This is the kind of long term partnership that gets us excited to show up every day: it's the perfect combo of an incredible destination, wonderful people, and a willingness to collaborate and think big picture, and to trust the process.
Over our incredible (and ongoing!) relationship, we've taken a remote destination with a fragmented and disorganised marketing footprint and turned it into a forward thinking, digital-enabled destination.
A regional destination marketing journey to be proud of
These hard-earned results were not achieved with lavish budgets - far from it, in fact.
Every year, with the support of their industry members, the volunteer-run FRO board has had to be more and more creative and resourceful to fund its marketing activities.
Doing more, with less.
The Opportunity
In 2025, the region's marketing budget stretched to maintaining their website and little else. Fortunately, their multi-year investment in content and brand building via their website and social media meant they had several valuable channels available to them.
For nearly a decade, the Flinders Ranges and Outback Facebook page has built a following of more than 15,000 people. Its Instagram page, while younger, has also surpassed 15,000 followers. What this means for the region's operators is access to an audience of highly relevant potential visitors.
Together, we designed a range of digital advertising packages, giving participants an array of options for social media advertising and content.
Most operators wouldn't have such a deep social media footprint, or access to the expertise of WOOF Media's specialists in campaign management. So when multiple organisations can share the costs of a campaign launched from the Flinders Ranges and Outback Meta accounts, they all receive the benefits of wide but highly relevant exposure for a fraction of what they'd spend trying to reach the same numbers from their own accounts.
Putting The Campaign Together
The ads, social posts and articles that brought the campaign to life
Organic social media content, single-image and carousel ads, and videos formed the backbone of our campaign. Since the timing was several months ahead of the peak tourism season, we focused on accommodation options and itineraries.
All the content was sourced from campaign participants and each ad linked back to the respective advertiser's ATDW listing to maximise the opportunity for direct leads, but also to add valuable website visitors to our social media advertising pool (our retargeting strategy).
Our talented wordsmith, Holly, penned an article titled "Your 2025 Must-Do's in Flinders Ranges and Outback" featuring participants of the 2025 Marketing Campaign.
We're always happy to collaborate so each operator specified the key points of their section of the story and then reviewed the copy before publication.
The piece was published to social media channels ahead of the busy winter season, then further amplified by the ad campaign. During the course of the campaign, there were 4,236 visitors to the article.
Not just a one-hit wonder
This article is now a permanent fixture on the Flinders Ranges and Outback website, meaning participants are still receiving clicks and phone calls long after their initial investment in the campaign.
Keys to a Successful Co-Operative Marketing Campaign
Grow at the speed of trust
Building and retaining trust is everything in a world where marketing is filled with big promises and empty pockets.
This principle applies to both your local industry members as well as your external marketing specialists. By strategically building trust through quick wins and smaller scale campaigns, you can prove the concept with your industry and then scale it up as resources allow.
The savvy business owner who sees value and a high possibility of a return on their marketing investment compared to what they could achieve on their own will invest in your co-operative campaign.
Build the essential foundations first
When we first started working with FRO, we didn't recommend running co-operative marketing campaigns in year one.
Or year two or three.
It took five years of "smell of an oily rag" marketing investments to get the fundamentals in place / website, visitor guide, industry confidence through forward-thinking leadership and strategic actions towards a clear goal.
There's no doubt that timeline could have been shorter, if FRO had bigger budgets and more resources available. But theirs is the reality that regional destinations deal with day in, and day out.
Our advice: Work with what you have and be strategic over the long term rather than chasing short term hype that looks good but achieves little.
Make ATDW work for your region
Powered by the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW), operator listings on FlindersandOutback.com.au provide contact information and brief promotional descriptions for each business.
For destinations, having a strong ATDW game involves rallying as many of your operators as possible to be present and active on the platform. The regions receiving the biggest benefits are coaching their operators to update their listing regularly, invest in quality photography and make use of the opportunity to offer promotions.
In return, your destination campaign can drive qualified, interested visitors to those businesses and measure the results by way of engagement and leads.
As we see a down trend in direct organic visitors to websites due to the growth of AI search, driving visitors directly through strategic campaigns is a valuable way to demonstrate the value of your destination marketing to your industry.
So what is an "ATDW lead"?
We measure how many people visited an ATDW listing, if they clicked to the operator’s website, book now button, or phone number. Each of these is recorded as an ATDW Lead.
For Flinders Ranges and Outback, the results of the 2025 campaign were very positive: a 90.2% increase YoY in total ATDW leads across the FRO website during the campaign period (March-June 2025). While all ATDW listings received more leads than usual, nearly half of the 7,500 generated by the campaign went to the advertising participants.
This YoY growth underlines the value to a region of consistent, regular investment in marketing.
The Results
During the campaign period, the website's traffic surged +35% YoY, as potential visitors browsed through the itineraries, blogs and operator listings of the Flinders and Outback site.
Despite a tight budget of under $10,000, we are still able to achieve a very low cost per link click, thanks to several years of past campaigns, and careful optimisation. The data on FRO's Meta account was in top shape.
For the ads, more than one million people across Australia were reached and nearly 46,000 people clicked through to the website.
Plenty of daydreaming about a trip to the region also occurred... people 'saved' one of the ads 1,157 times. And then 261 people shared one of the ads - either via direct messaging or to their feed.
Most importantly, each participant saw value from their modest investment. ATDW leads from the FRO website were double or triple what they usually experience - a welcome number of enquiries, phone calls, and site traffic for the competitive entry cost of joining the campaign.
How can we help?
We'd love to hear about your marketing challenges and see if we could be the right fit to help you get results like these.