• OBJECTIVE
• Background on our destination marketing role:
• Unlike Tourism Australia, which promotes Australia internationally, and Visit Victoria, which markets Victoria to international and interstate visitors, the City of Melbourne’s primary role is to promote the city to Melburnians.
• The problem:
• The challenge they were facing? Visitation to the city was dropping off a cliff in winter.
• Why? Well, it’s a problem which we can all relate to:
• The sofa is just so much more comfortable in winter.
• Nearly half of Melburnians agree it’s far too cold to go into the city in winter, and if they do make it off the couch, it’s typically to head somewhere warmer (Queensland) or to the ski fields. This, plus the lingering cost of living crisis, were dousing the flames of this typically vibrant and buzzing place.
• Melburnians opt to stay home,wrapped up, warm and on the couch in winter, something we had to change.
• This led to our insight to unlock: We allow ourselves to hibernate guilt free in winter. In doing so we self sabotage and give up our winter months to the sofa.
• 
  The goal:
• We needed to reignite the city’s flame, and inspire Melburnians to tear themselves away from their sofa and get back into the city this winter.
• The objectives:
• -       Showcase what is unique and distinctive about Melbourne through an immersive, accessible, real-life, unique experience dramatising what can be found everyday Only in the City​ (i.e. bring the campaign positioning to life).
• -       Increase footfall and support the daytime economy at a time of lower visitation.
• -       Create deeper engagement and positive sentiment through earned media and word of mouth.
• -       Support all destination experience pillars – retail, hospitality, arts and culture, events and iconic sights.
• -       Drive audiences to What’s On channels (our owned content channel that informs Melburnians what is happening 
•       in their city.
• -       Grow our online community and showcase more possibilities available Only In the City
• STRATEGY
• We knew that despite the cost of living, the cool and wild weather dampening the spirits of Melburnians, they still held immense pride in their city; as at April 2023, most Melburnians agreed they are proud of their city. We just had to reignite the flame.
• To do this, we needed to counter the deep pull of the sofa, and wake up Melburnians, by creating our very own smelling salts and appealing to their senses.
• In Melbourne, winter is not the time to turn the senses off and go shut-eye for 3 months. Winter in Melbourne is a time for sensory overload. When the weather gets cold, Melbourne heats up. You can feel the flames heat the sky along South Bank, let hot footy pies thaw your frozen fingers, warm your soul with some world-class food, feel the burning glow of an open fire in a basement bar. When you have a winter city as great as ours, don’t hibernate. Wake up.
• Proposition: In Melbourne, winter is a time to wake up, not hibernate.
• We would do this by leveraging our Only in the City platform, which positions Melbourne exactly as it is. Unique. Unmatched. Deeply varied. A host to experiences that can’t be had anywhere else.
• And so, our activation was born.
• By taking the sights and sounds of summer and flipping them - we gave Melburnians a reason to get off their couches and head into the city – no matter the weather. In answering the age old question - “Where DO all the ice cream trucks go in Winter?!”, we created something PR-worthy, that truly encapsulates the Only in the City platform - an idea as unique and unexpected as the city itself.
• Melbourne’s Hottest Ice Cream’. This two-day pop-up, was held in the lead up to the winter solstice, on July 14th and 15th, and celebrated Melbourne’s world-renowned food scene. We grabbed widespread attention, thousands of visitors and helped cement Melbourne as a unique winter destination.
• The activation was brought to life with local celebrity chef and MasterChef finalist Sarah Todd. Together we developed a piping hot, savoury soft serve, that was inspired by the culinary melting pot of the city. The one-off dish merged traditional Indian flavours and native ingredients with a creative, Melbourne flair.
• And it worked. Melburnians braved the cold to enjoy Todd’s creation, of whipped Aloo Gobi soft serve topped with a naan wafer, Davidson plum syrup and candied fennel seeds. And in true ‘ice cream’ style, it was served in a savory waffle cone with a saltbush rim – straight from the window of the City of Melbourne’s custom Only in the City ice cream truck.
• RESULTS
• The activation was a huge success, and reached far beyond the steps of the state library.
• A line wrapped around the block (110m), as we dished up 2,150 serves that were shared across socials and even made the news. Foodie influencers flocked to try the one-off dish and shared their glowing reviews to a huge audience.
• We secured coverage on Channel 7 and Channel 10, and even a mention on The Project, with comedian Michael Hing showing footage of the Lord Mayor tasting the ice cream.
• The activation garnered 6 pieces of coverage across 55 syndications, garnering a total PR reach of 822,457. Media sentiment was 84% positive-neutral, and our influencer strategy saw us reach a whopping 760,300 people with 16,000 engagements. Sarah Todd, the star of our show, reached 264,800 people, and saw 8,000 engagements. Influencer media value alone was $100,300.
• The activation was shared on our own social content platform ‘What’s On’, the activation itself also directed Melburnians through a QR code to our What’s on website:
• -       What’s On social media posts reached 2.1 million feeds.
• -       What’s On webpage was the most viewed of all event pages, receiving 68% more views than the next most popular event this week.
• -       What’s On email newsletter feature achieved a click-through rate 32% above our average
• Followers knew that this was something that they had to try for themselves; 29.3% of attendees had come into the city for the activation, and the positive comments started rolling in:
• “So deceptive. It looks like a delicious ice cream. It certainly would play tricks on the mind. Very creative.”
• “Who could’ve thought of Aloo Gobi Curry Ice Cream!”
• “It was so good!”

People were sharing their own experiences and convincing others to go and try it for themselves. Result!

• Results highlights:
• -       6 pieces of coverage across 55 syndications
• -        PR reach of 822,457
• -       Social reach 2million+
• -       Media sentiment was 84% positive-neutral
• -       29.3% of attendees had come into the city for the activation