TRAVELLERS passing through Melbourne's Southern Cross Station are being asked to visit the Rural City of Wangaratta via a major marketing and advertising campaign.
Wangaratta council launched an immersive station domination campaign that will run for the whole of July, made possible with the use of part of its $500,000 advertising and promotion budget for 2022/23.
Melburnians are invited to "'swap that sandwich for the scenery'', "'the traffic for the trails'' or the ''stairs for the skies'' in a campaign that targets commuters by appealing to the idea of getting out the weekly grind.
Prominent signage at Southern Cross Station promotes the rural city using imagery of some of the city's greatest attractions to sell the message that Wangaratta is a great place to visit.
It involves positioning a series of scenarios that compares an everyday activity with a 'get away moment and there is a strong focus on the outdoors with iconic wineries, lookouts, lakes and trails taking centre stage.
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Artworks with variations of the 'get away from the everyday' slogan are displayed throughout the station and will include: large double sided hanging banners, 3m high lightboxes, 5m lift shaft lightboxes, platform glass barriers, main entrance signage, stair risers, and several floor graphics plus 85–inch television screens giving maximum exposure to potential visitors to the region.
As part of the campaign, two weeks of live streaming activation will bring the best of the region direct to the Melbourne CBD.
Winery sommeliers will appear on the streaming screen to interact with commuters in Melbourne, inviting them to put their sense of smell to the test with a series of fun activities.
Passers–by will also be able to be transported to the region through a virtual reality experience, providing a two–minute taster of the scenery, the trails, the skies and the cellar doors.
Additional activation includes hopping into a hot air balloon basket for a selfie, and popcorn giveaways as part of the promotion to encourage visitation to the region.
Cr Dave Fuller said the Rural City of Wangaratta is competing with all the other regional cities in the state and now is the time to market the area enticing people to visit, but also potentially move to live in the area in the future.
He said it might be people who are looking to move to the area in two years' time and there are blocks of land that can be bought and plenty of jobs on offer in the area.
"It could be medical professionals who are looking to move to Wangaratta once they graduate to start up work at the hospital, or it might be someone who currently works for a council in a metro area and they are looking for greener fields," Cr Fuller said.
The Rural City of Wangaratta region will be on show to more than 1.4 million people who pass through Southern Cross.
Sadie Tilleray, Rural City of Wangaratta marketing and communications specialist, said an activation of this scale was a first for council.
"We are incredibly excited about the live–streaming activities between Southern Cross Station and wineries in the King Valley region," she said.
Director of sustainability and culture, Stephen Swart, said the campaign will drive visitation to the area and showcase the incredible region as a premier travel destination.
"More tourists and visitors to our region brings with it an economic boost," he said.
"Visitors spending time in our hotels, motels, restaurants and businesses, that's what we want to see as an outcome of this campaign."
