Mercedes-Benz and Lonely Planet join forces

by Marketing ON 10 November 2010

Lonely Planet and Mercedes-Benz have formed a partnership to bring back the Australian road trip.

The joint effort is a promotion for both Lonely Planet’s new guidebook, Discover Australia, and the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, which the car giant are trying to position as a spacious ‘sport’s tourer’ car.

The campaign is based mainly on a website that offer users 10 great Australian road trips with PDF itineraries. Users are encouraged to share locations within Australia they have enjoyed that are stereo(un)typical escapes; not so standard road trips.

“The 10 free itineraries available for download have been specially produced for this campaign, and feature all the qualities that make Lonely Planet’s travel information the best in the world. At the same time, shared travel experiences are at the heart of everything Lonely Planet does – so we’re also looking forward to seeing what stereo(un)typical Australian escapes are shared in the competition,” said Shawn Low, Lonely Planet’s Asia-Pacific Travel Editor.

Already, there have been almost 300 entries, and users who promote their escape and get Facebook ‘likes’ are raised in the escape rankings, with the leader at the end of the campaign scoring five grand.

“Lonely Planet is all about inspiring people to get to the heart of a place. Our Stereo(un)typical Australian Escapes partnership with the Mercedes-Benz and the B-Class brings that mission to life.”

Lonely Planet offers trapped travellers free apps

by Marketing ON 20 April 2010

Lonely Planet is offering free iPhone city guide applications to travellers stranded in Europe due to Iceland’s volcano eruption.

In response to the widespread chaos caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, the company is offering 13 of its European iPhone guides free.

The cities included are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna.

“Travellers stuck in unfamiliar places need access to practical information as well as suggestions on what to do while stranded,” said Shawn Low, Lonely Planet travel editor Asia-Pacific.

“That’s why we’re giving away iPhone city guides to major affected destinations.”

The guides will be free until 22 April from the iTunes app store.

Previous Lonely Planet title leverages iPad

by Marketing ON 9 April 2010

Lonely Planet has redeveloped an old title, in an early demonstration of how to revisit content for the iPad.

Content owners of all varieties are looking at how to redevelop concepts or content for the iPad. Lonely Planet have revisited one title, 1000 Ultimate Experiences, extrapolating the text version to include photo and video.

“The multimedia capabilities of iPad allow us to offer travellers rich imagery and video, and have given us the opportunity to reinvent travel books in a playful and tactile way. You can really get lost in this experience in the way you would with a coffee table book, which is something you haven’t been able to do with digital media up until now,” said Chris Boden, Lonely Planets director of mobile and innovation.

In the near future the brand is planning to develop its Discover guides for the format.

Whos who in the zoo: Lonely Planet

by Marketing ON 25 March 2010

Lonely Planet has announced a Sue Norton as its new senior vice president and head of television.

The brand revealed to Marketing magazine the role had been filled by acting employees between the departure of the former head of television in June 2009, saying the appointment would bring a more strategic focus. It sees the role move from the brand’s spiritual home of Melbourne to Los Angeles.

Norton will be responsible for building Lonely Planet’s global programming and presence on television and digital video content for web, mobile and partner distribution. A particular focus will be on growing the brand’s television presence in the US.

“Sue’s role and her location in the global televisual capital can only accelerate our ambitions for Lonely Planet TV. Working with BBC Worldwide Productions hugely experienced team, led by Jane Tranter, will also afford her the networking opportunities we found difficult to deliver from this position in Melbourne,” said Marcus Arthur, managing director of global brands at BBC Worldwide and chairman of Lonely Planet.

Norton comes to Lonely Planet from Travel Channel Studios, which she launched and worked at as vice president.

A taste of Asia

by Marketing ON 30 November 2009

Background

For more than 20 years, Asian Home Gourmet has brought Asia’s favourite recipes out of Chinatown and into 8000+ supermarkets in 41 countries. Cerebos Australia took over the distribution of the Asian Home Gourmet brand domestically in October 2008. After making the product available in Coles, Woolworths, IGA and many Asian supermarkets, the challenge was to increase consumer awareness of the brand and its authenticity credentials.

Brand: Asian Home Gourmet
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Media Agency: Match Dialogue
Digital Sales Agency: AD2ONE

Objective

Following its appointment as distributor, Cerebos consulted its media strategy agency, Match Dialogue, about the need to develop an aspirational brand campaign for Asian Home Gourmet. The brief was to build brand awareness among supermarket shoppers.

Strategy

The challenge was to align with a media property that shared the same core values as Asian Home Gourmet. The digital environment was identified as a key medium where the target audience were spending their time and would also give us the ability to micro-target the campaign to specific Asian countries, said Harmony Kwong, communications strategist at Match Dialogue.

The obvious solution was Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet has evolved to become a major internet travel publisher globally, mirroring consumers shift to seek travel advice online rather than from their trusty travel guides.

LonelyPlanets commitment to the independent travel experience and editorial independence are some of the reasons why LonelyPlanet.com attracts over five million visitors per month. The site acts as a connection between travellers and Lonely Planet and both are bound by a passion for hitting the road and the experiences that brings.

LonelyPlanet.com/Australia is tailored for Australian travellers and is segmented by destinations. It features travel information, tips and advice for over 30 Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and India, all of which Cerebos Foods was interested in targeting for the Asian Home Gourmet brand campaign.

We really identified with Lonely Planets philosophy of being the guidebook to authentic travel experiences and its reputation for helping consumers find their way through an exciting journey of discovery. We believed that travellers who are interested in travelling to Asia would also want to recreate the sensory experiences of Asia at home, said Justin Lam, group brand manager for Asian Home Gourmet.

Execution

AD2ONE, who handle Lonely Planets digital sales, worked with Match Dialogue and Cerebos to create a relaunch campaign to build brand awareness for Asian Home Gourmet in the Australian market.

The Lonely Planet Tastes of Asia campaign started in February 2009 and ran until the start of July. It featured a number of different colourful and inspiring themes for advertisements which were found on the homepage and on pages for Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and India. The ads led visitors to a microsite, which included a downloadable travel guide with content about the country and the local cuisine for Asian destinations.

Results

Time spent on microsite: 5 minutes+
8000+ Mini travel guide downloads
CTR from microsite to Asian Home Gourmet site: 8%
The concurrently run sampling campaign ran out of stock eight weeks before completion, and
Approximately 35% share of voice on the Lonely Planet home page for Cerebos/Asian Home Gourmet.

The campaign drove substantial uplift during the relaunch and was able to sustain a double digit baseline increase (20%+) compared to pre-campaign levels. Approximately five million run-of-site targeted display ads enticed Lonely Planet users to check out the culinary guide based on a specific destination they were viewing.

The company was particularly impressed with the ability to micro-target to each Asian country as well as the measurability of each specific element to the campaign.

Lonely Planet online complemented the Asian Home Gourmet brand perfectly and combined with the expertise of both Match Dialogue and AD2ONE, this digital campaign has contributed greatly to our goals for 2009, said Lam.

Launch of Lonely Planet magazine delayed

by Marketing ON 17 November 2008

It pays to check your diary before planning magazine launches – BBC Magazines has had to delay the launch of its much-anticipated Lonely Planet magazine after deciding it did not want it to be released on the same day as the 15th anniversary and 100th issue of rival travel magazine Wanderlust, preventing what could have ended in open warfare between the two.

The corporation had set Thursday 20 November as the launch date of the major brand extension of the travel guide publisher, since it acquired a 75 percent stake in Lonely Planet in October 2007.

The delay follows an accusation from Wanderlust editor and publisher, Lyn Hughes, that BBC Worldwide had deliberately targeted her title by launching Lonely Planet magazine on the same day as it celebrates its 100th issue.

Lonely Planet will be aimed at frequent travellers and feature a mix of editorial and photography, with a particular focus on ideas for future trips, short breaks and long journeys. With such an extensive back catalogue of travel photos and stories, the mag has hefty support.

So far the magazine has only been released in Spain and there haven’t been any announcements as to whether or not it will be coming to Australia.

Who’s who in the Zoo: Rowell gets Lonely Planet role.

by Marketing ON 18 September 2008

Dominic Rowell has been named global marketing director for Lonely Planet, a newly created role responsible for coordinating all marketing activities and developing a global brand strategy.

He brings extensive experience in building consumer brands and driving sales in FMCGs and retail, more recently as marketing director of The Carphone Warehouse. He has also worked at Spillers, PepsiCo, Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s.

Rowell will be based at the company’s head office in Melbourne.

Stephen Palmer, acting chief executive of Lonely Planet, says the new role will entail working closely with the company’s regional marketing teams.

There has been much speculation as to what would happen at the travel-publishing house following its sale to BBC Worldwide.

The company’s move into mobile media last month, through a new partnership with Nokia, has been the major source of news out of the company.

Users of Nokia Maps can pay to download maps and city guides for more than 100 tourist locations provided by Lonely Planet.

On the subject of Lonely Planet: ever wanted to get an inside look at the workings of one of the most powerful publishing brands on the planet? Want to know how it dealt with a glaring spelling mistake on the cover of one of its most popular releases?

Check out Marketing Magazine’s October issue for a full-length Lonely Planet article, written by editor Kylie Flavell. In a candid interview, Tony Wheeler gives Marketing a peek into the world of his brainchild and why everyone is dying to work there.

Marketing October issue on sale 24 September.