“There’s nothing like Australia” is still Tourism Australia’s catch cry. Everything else is new. DT is transforming how the world explores Australia online so that they move from dreaming to doing. The aim, of course, is to put more bums on plane seats to Australian destinations.

The first project is Tourism Australia’s new site, which has just been completed after 18 months’ work. Its avant-garde features, agile publishing capabilities, personalisation strategies and best possible user experience enhance Australia’s brand personality. We’ve said good-bye to she’ll be bloody right, mate.

The site’s welcome ‘mat’ is a new crowd-sourced, time-lapse creative feature, Chase the Sun, that shows off the best of Australia.

DT partner and strategy chief, Tim Evans, noted that through simple, timeless design principles, and tools to create engagement and personalisation, the new look Australia.com is a fully-responsive site available on all devices in 11 languages, suitable for multiple markets.

“Today, the connected traveller is seeking both inspiration and information from a single, authentic source. We found that the majority of our audience was turning online before they’ve decided where, or how they’ll travel. And as the needs of the new traveller have changed, so too did Australia.com,” he explained.

“The result is a site for both travellers and operators to connect, share stories, discover inspiration, find information, and take the next step in planning Australian travel experiences.”

To develop the strategic approach, DT worked with TA for more than six months to define the vision and develop the model. Research was then undertaken in conjunction with TNS to gain a deep understanding of the habits of travellers in both Western and Eastern markets, and how they look for travel information online.

Rapthi Thanapalasingam, head of digital at Tourism Australia, commented “The new Australia.com couldn’t just be a tweak of the current site – it had to be a completely new experience. And to succeed, we wanted to benchmark ourselves beyond the tourism category. This entirely new site needed to respond to the major trends that were changing our world – big content, data, collaboration and co-creation”.

Brian Vella, chief executive officer of DT concluded, “The new site is the first iteration of our vision to provide the best view of Australia to the world. We’ve worked together to install an elegant technology stack, and designed agile publishing workflows that span the globe. It’s a fantastic achievement, and really sets us up for future success.”

DT’s next task is to translate Tourism Australia’s owned assets onto the Adobe Platform.

Credits:

Agency: DT

Strategy: Tim Evans (DT partner)

Technology:Tom Beeby (DT partner), James Rintoul (tech lead)

Management: Aditi Naik (group account director), Brian Vella (chief executive officer)

Project: Luke Evans (project director), Amanda Jacobs (account director)

Experience design: Jason Massarotto (director), Richard Davy (associate director)

Art Direction: Thierry Guerchet (senior art director)

Data & Analytics: Leon Bombotas (director)

Content: Gordon McNenney (director)