Marketforce’s ‘Love My Rotto’ campaign wins WA Tourism Gold to kick off summer
Summer is here – and West Australians are once again being urged to head for the State’s island playground with the relaunch of the award-winning ‘Love My Rotto’ campaign.
The launch marks the second successive summer the campaign has been run, and follows success for the ‘Love My Rotto’ campaign at the recent WA Tourism Awards where it took out Gold for the best Tourism marketing campaign of the year. The award was accepted by members of the Rottnest Express team and Marketforce chairman John Driscoll (pictured below).
Created by Marketforce for Rottnest Express, ‘Love My Rotto’ was first launched in December 2010 as an extensive summer marketing campaign with the aim of increasing visitors to Rottnest Island.
Using a broad media mix including radio, television, press, online and outdoor advertising, the campaign – the first major brand campaign for the island in more than 20 years – proved a huge success, with visitor numbers for the 2010/11 financial year up 14% on theprevious year.
Marketforce Director of Client Services Rick Multari said the agency had been given a brief of reconnecting the people of Perth with Rottnest, while providing a platform to advertise retail deals available on the island and great travel offers to get there.
“The aim was to re-engage the community with the island, and reignite that sense of passion and ownership West Australians have always had about Rottnest,” he said. ‘Love My Rotto’ summed that up perfectly, and as the first major brand campaign for the island since “Take Me To My Island” in the 1980s it exceeded expectations.” Such was the success of ‘Love My Rotto’ that the campaign has been taken on for this summer as a co-operative marketing effort, backed by the Rottnest Island Authority and the island’s business community.
The campaign will continue as the key platform for the promotion of Rottnest Island throughout the summer of 2012, and this season is being used to support a major promotional initiative for the island – the Rotto Savings Passport.
The Passport contains over 60 Rotto deals and is available free of charge throughout the summer. It allows travellers to Rottnest to unlock great value offers on getting to the islandand shopping, eating and relaxing once there.
Multari said news of the WA Tourism Awards win and the renewal of the ‘Love My Rotto’ campaign further underlined Marketforce’s destination marketing credentials.
“This is an area we’ve built a strong name in, as evidenced by our reappointment to the City of Perth account earlier this year,” he said. “We’re currently in development of amajor new brand campaign to revitalise the City’s positioning, and look forwardto unveiling that in 2012.”
19 Comments
Didn’t Andrew Tinning write this campaign?
And yet the numbers visiting the island continue to decline.
Are these awarded on results?
All the glossy promos will not help Rottnest. Numbers will continue to drop. In the past it was impossible to get a place in December. Next year there are plenty of units free.
It is a playground for the rich and even they are getting pissed off now.
Most of them avoid the island all together and just stay on their boats.
The Rottnest island Board, the ferry company and the monopoly retail operation are spoiling what should be a world class destination for all of us. They have no idea of service on the island. You are just a pain in the arse to them.
I watched the My Rotto video on the ferry the other day and laughed. Then I looked around and everyone was laughing and saying. “Hey where’s that place? That looks great. We just went to Rottnest and it was crap.” There’s people smiling and being served by happy attractive staff. At the pub when I asked where our plates were for our overpriced calamari entree she said. “Over there, near the toilets.”
The board is a bunch of jokers. I’m sure John is doing his best. They can’t even co-ordinate ferry and bus services. Look at the ferry timetable and the bus timetable if you have time. It’s a laugh. Pick up for luggage is at 8 am ONLY and you can’t get the keys to your overpriced unit at 2pm. The Lodge is an embarrassment. And you struggle to get a good meal anywhere on the island. Stairs to the beaches are closed down at Geordie. Geordie Bay jetty is closed. There’s no cafe at Geordie Bay anymore. The Rottnest store will not sell anything from the bakery anymore so they sell you bread from Perth. If you want a jubilee bun in Geordie. Forget it.
Everywhere you turn from parking at the ferry terminal, ferry tickets, landing fees, chalet rates, food, wine, there’s a hand taking your money. If you don’t wear a helmet there’s a $100 fine, meanwhile hundreds of drunk 15 year-olds roam the streets stealing your expensive hire bikes.
I’m over it. Hello Bali.
Strong post Willem de Vlamingh.
I agree.
Holy crud, Willem – hit the nail on the freaking head there, sir.
Also, jam donuts are something like $5!
Thanks fan. I forgot about the jam donuts. It’s all a rip off. For us old blokes, I’m over 350 years old now, we had a lot of good times are Rotto as kids. Now our children will have sell their houses to spend time on the island. Sack the board now and put people on who love the island and not their position on the board and all the perks that come with that position.
Have a look at the Rottnest Business Community. What a nice cosy little group.
RIBC Chairman: Ivan Rutherford, Proprietor of Rottnest Bakery and Rutherford Group
Executive Member: Tony Dichiera, Project Manager Prendiville Group and Hotel Rottnest.
Executive Member: Paolo Amaranti, Chief Executive Officer, Rottnest Island Authority
Executive Member: Ian Dawson, Director, Rottnest Express.
Executive Member: Michael Sier, Managing Director, Pelagic.
Executive Member: Steve Walsh, Owner, Dome.
Executive Member: Greg Brindle, Owner, Rottnest Island General Store.
From the website –
The Rottnest Island Business Community (RIBC) Inc is group of dedicated businesses which operate on or around the island. Lead by an Executive of five, our strategic objectives are to:
Enhance the visitor experience, with the introduction of a customer service program for all employees working on or around the island.
Rebuild a sense of community on Rottnest by working in conjunction with the RIA and the community to provide a better environment for workers, residents and their families.
Increase visitor numbers in a sustainable manner with a comprehensive destination marketing plan, collaborative campaigns and appropriate product development.
Communication: Positively engage with the community, the RIA, stakeholders and Government through effective communication both externally to these groups and internally to our members.
Positively engage and offer value to the Rottnest Island Management Plan 2009 -2014.
What a joke.
Nothing in the Business Community objectives about the general public and what they want. It’s all about what’s best for them. Increase visitor numbers. Yeah sure!
How much money they can make and how to provide a better environment for workers, residents and THEIR families. (The Prendiville’s and the Brindle’s to be specific.) Rebuild a sense of community on Rottnest. Give me a break?
It’s not their island. It’s everyone’s. It’s ours.
Thanks Willem de Vlamingh.
The Rotto Savings Passport. WOW!
The Passport contains over 60 Rotto deals and is available free of charge throughout the summer. It allows travellers to Rottnest to unlock great value offers on getting to the island and shopping, eating and relaxing once there.
You need to save as much as you can just to pay for the ferry.
The deals are a joke. Have a look. You could save $5 if you spend $500. Which isn’t hard on Rotto.
OH AND here are the Terms & Conditions.
Valid dates, and times as marked.
Some offers are valid for online bookings only. Please read the offers carefully as to which offers need to booked online.
All offers are subject to availability.
Offers cannot be used in conjunction together or with other offers.
Hope Crown opens a casino there. It will become the Monaco of the southern hemisphere. Which will quickly become the Monaro of the southern hemisphere.
Forget rotto, what about the ad? C’mon, it’s double cheese and won some kind of award! It shouldn’t have got past the agency or the client.
They really need to look at those figures. Once they changed the rules on schoolies and juvies, there’s your 14%. Shallow victory.
My arteries clogged with the cheese. Why are we honouring crap?
Crown will eventually open a casino at Rotto. They’ll build a huge multi million dollar barge with a 25 – 50 storey building and float it 1km off Thompson Bay. There will be a marina attached and the high rollers will arrive by helicopter and mega yachts . There will be amazing accommodation, restaurants, cafes and gaming rooms. After a big night of fine dining and gambling the high rollers turds will flush out into the bay and be consumed by crayfish which will be then caught and served to the high rollers the following day. The circle of life. Bring it on.
The award was a tourism award – what could it have been competing against? With ‘such a broad media mix’ and by exceeding so many expectations, no one else had a look in! Great work.
That ad is awful. ho were they up against. The Narrogin pub?
Just booked the family’s tickets to Rotto…
Family ferry return, bike transport, 1 bike hire, kayak transport, luggage tags… $380.
There’s your visitor problem right there.
Yep. No cream buns.
They are just making it so expensive. The RIA are making a fortune on all the landing fees. Why you can’t buy a yearly landing fee like any other A class reserve I don’t know. And the ferry monopoly. Don’t get me started.
Enjoy your day at Rotto.
It’s actually a fairly average ad that could be promoting any destination with a beach. Or a pushbike. Surely Rotto has other defining features… doesn’t it?
Willem de Vlamingh – you’ve summed it up! Just brilliant and couldn’t agree more.
I hope the RIA and Board read this link….