Image: from video Melbourne – Get Out of the State You’re In
We need to talk about the current Northern Territory campaign, Get Out of the State You’re In, and how it’s an absolute gem of a lesson for Australian content marketers. Now, even though I said the c-word (yes, campaign) I want you to calm your ta-tas because while it may seem like a creative agency’s one-off spray and pray approach, it’s the underlying always-on content behind it that makes it an incredibly valuable touchpoint.
I first encountered this campaign via a Pedestrian TV article titled Watch: Aussie comedians take the absolute piss out of our nation’s states. This was a promoted piece between Tourism NT and Pedestrian that included two campaign videos featuring some Australian comedians do just that, paying out Sydney and Melbourne with not-so-subtle comparisons to life in the Northern Territory.
In some countries, this approach would not work. But Australians are notoriously competitive among states, and are far from sensitive when it comes to making jokes about themselves and everyone else, so they totally nailed the audience.
Why it’s good
Personally I think good content marketing should aim to do one or more of three things: entertain, educate and/or engage. So I’m going to go off topic here for a moment and give you some examples.
Whiteboard Fridays
Moz is an SEO tool that has a content product called Whiteboard Friday. Whiteboard Friday is a weekly video series hosted by search superstar Rand Fishkin (is this his real name? wow!) that unpacks an SEO topic or question in detail.
This is fantastic utility content that no doubt brings exactly their target audience to the Moz website every week. I would call this content engaging (naturally, as it’s video and Rand is made for the screen), and educational. A super valuable touchpoint between Moz and its customers.
The Wolf
Another example would be the HP mini movie series The Wolf. This is a multiple episode series that features Christian Slater as an expert hacker that infiltrates a financial company’s printers to gain access to their entire business network – educational takeaway: only 2% of the world’s printers are secure.
This is educational content posed as entertaining content which again, is engaging due to the content format (video).
Back to Get Out of the State You’re In
The campaign videos are hilarious so entertainment is a given. They’re video and they connect emotionally with the viewer, so they’re extremely engaging. And they’re educational because they compare the other states with the Northern Territory’s natural and man-made offerings.
But I think we can all agree that this alone is probably not enough to get someone to uproot their entire life and move to Darwin (or thereabouts). However it does entice the country’s youngsters to enquire further.
This is where the NT wins
Tourism NT are absolutely killing it with their always-on content marketing which includes a fantastic easy-to-navigate website, an extensive library of searchable utility and leisure content, incredible user-generated content social media strategy and a tone of voice that rivals its competitors.
The Get Out of the State You’re In campaign acts as the moment of inspiration or trigger content to get in front of an audience that may later be thinking of relocating. When the time comes that the person wants to see this into fruition, Northern Territory is now a part of the options they’re considering.
Tourism NT then provides them with E V E R Y T H I N G they need to make their decision, as well as emotional touchpoints in the form of everyday social media inspiration. This mixture of campaign and always-on content is bang on, and something you should consider doing with your own marketing.
Key takeaways:
- Does your content hub answer all of your audience’s questions? Start there.
- Does your day-to-day social presence inspire people to check out what you’re all about?
- Create a moment of inspiration that drives people to your content hub.
