From Mamamia to Mon Repos: Summer Campaign Results Unwrapped

With the Summer Season well and truly wrapped up, and the turtles that hatched at Mon Repos now making their way through the big blue, Bundaberg Tourism is pleased to share the results of our 2024/25 Summer Campaign.

Campaign Overview

Running from September through March, the 2024/25 Summer Campaign set out to position Bundaberg and the Southern Great Barrier Reef as the destination of choice for a quintessential Queensland summer escape.

Targeting families and environmentally conscious travellers within South East Queensland and the 400km drive market, the campaign highlighted the region’s proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, immersive wildlife encounters, and affordable, high-value leisure experiences. With a clear objective to drive website engagement and generate qualified leads for industry, the campaign targeted audiences further along the path to purchase. Through strategic partnerships, curated content, and seasonal storytelling, it highlighted the region’s affordable experiences, commitment to sustainability, and appeal to travelling families.

By showcasing accessible island adventures, hands-on conservation efforts, and meaningful moments in nature, the campaign aimed to inspire visitors to choose Bundaberg for a summer holiday — where great begins.

Refresh on the Campaign Launch & Activity Overview here

Strategic Shift: From Reach to Results

The 2024/25 Summer Campaign set out with a clear goal: drive conversions and leads to operators, focusing on the SEQ drive market and promoting themes of affordability, family fun, and where great care begins.

The campaign focused on engaging high-value traffic over broad awareness and ‘top of funnel’ exposure and has directly benefited our industry through increase economic outcomes as a direct result. Through targeting qualified audiences further down the sales funnel, especially through our partnership with Mamamia, BT delivered more tangible, conversion-focused results, such as 43,600+ leads to industry (+17% YOY) which translates to $30 million in estimated regional visitor expenditure.

	6.6 MILLION+ CAMPAIGN REACH	43,600+ LEADS TO INDUSTRY	$30,300,000 ESTIMATED REGIONAL VISITOR EXPENDITURE*

* Based on leads to operator websites x average overnight visitor expenditure Year Ending 2024 – Tourism Research Australia

1.6 MILLION+ TOTAL META AD CAMPAIGN REACH	4.6 MILLION+ TOTAL SOCIAL MEDIA REACH	191,000+ WEBSITE SESSIONS	33,000+ BLOG READERS

	990 MILLION+ TOTAL MEDIA REACH	$1.36 BILLION+ ADVERTISING VALUE EQUIVALENCE (AVE) AU/NZ & EUROPE/UK

META Campaign Highlights

In 2024/25, BT focused less on broad awareness and more on meaningful, high-value traffic that directly benefited our industry. Whilst top-line metrics like reach and impressions naturally declined due to reduced investment, the campaign became significantly more efficient - delivering lower cost per click and engagement, and driving stronger action based outcomes.

Key Highlights
- Link clicks up 16% (6,460 → 7,495)
- Landing page views held steady (3,707 → 3,658)
- Engagements up 819% (24,077 → 221,252)
- Checkouts initiated more than doubled (30 → 70)
- Website purchases more than doubled (24 → 54)

Mamamia Digital Partnership

A new campaign partner for the Bundaberg Region, Mamamia allowed us to target high-worth families across Australia. The partnership extended campaign messaging across their high-reach editorial, podcast and display platforms. Mamamia reaches 7.5 million Australian women, with 76% of their audience being parents and 50% reporting household incomes above $150K. This partnership aligned well with our target market and campaign themes of affordability, reef access and sustainability.

The campaign performed well, meeting all KPIs, with the advertorial insertion the strongest performer exceeding the benchmark by +9%.

Key Highlights
- 8,182 pageviews on the written article (+9% vs benchmark)
- 566,000+ display impressions at benchmark CTR (0.11%)
- 200,000+ Run of Network podcast impressions
- 1,850+ link clicks from display advertising
- 740+ social engagements from Mamamia’s posts

Read the article here: Things to do in Bundaberg – Mamamia

PR & Media Activity

Bundaberg Tourism’s earned media strategy continued to amplify the region’s seasonal messaging and hero experiences.

BT partnered with NRMA to leverage the launch of Turtle Sands to drive considerable destination media coverage for the property and the broader region. This was a significant addition to the annual summer PR strategy, with multiple familiarisations conducted across the Bundaberg Region, further aided by partnerships with Tourism & Events Queensland and Tourism Australia. An exciting partnership with the TODAY Show for two weather crosses in February showcased Macadamias Australia and Turtle Sands, delivering national broadcast exposure to key summer hero experiences.

Key Highlights
- 18 media hosted across
- 16 famil itineraries
- 990 million+ potential media reach
- $1.36 billion+ AVE
- Featured in Escape, Lonely Planet, Urban List, Australian Traveller, Holiday with Kids, Courier Mail, NZ Herald, and more National broadcast exposure via Today Show and Sunrise segments

Top Content Performance

Campaign blogs and organic content played a key role in supporting both SEO and conversion goals.

Key Highlights
- Stargazing on the Southern Great Barrier Reef – 6,570 views
- 30 Under $30 – 6,253 views
- Sweet Escape to Sugar Cane Country – 2,358 views
- Turtles 12 Ways – 1,890 views

Queensland Rail Advertorial

In addition to our digital efforts, the campaign was supported by a print advertorial in Embark, Queensland Rail’s onboard magazine. Distributed across five long-distance train services between December and February, the publication offered a captive and values-aligned audience already immersed in the idea of slow, scenic travel.

The feature aligned with our sustainability messaging, encouraging low-impact travel and inviting readers to discover Bundaberg’s unique reef access, nature-based experiences, and relaxed pace – reaching an estimated 84,000+ readers.

Mon Repos Turtle Encounter

Turtle season remains a hero experience for Bundaberg, drawing strong visitation and web engagement:

Key Highlights
- 27,099 tickets sold (+19% YoY)
- 90.7% of ticket allocation sold
- 38.3% increase in average session duration on the destination website
- 27.87% increase in website length of stay with visitors from Brisbane 85.9% increase in website length of stay with visitors from Melbourne

Website traffic and bookings were positively impacted by blog content and targeted turtle season eDMs, with over 18,500+ email opens and 4,700+ link clicks across the season.

Final Thoughts

The 2024/25 Summer Campaign reinforced the importance of focusing on meaningful engagement over mass awareness. By leveraging the right platforms and messaging, and targeting audiences with intent, the campaign delivered measurable results for our operators and the region.

A massive thank you to our partners and industry stakeholders for your support in making this campaign a success.

For more information or to discuss future campaign involvement, please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.