The Extraordinary Taxi Ride is the first of many integrated marketing campaigns that will bring Tourism Western Australia�s (Tourism WA) new Experience Extraordinary brand to life.

Relying heavily on digital marketing, the Extraordinary Taxi Ride brings the Experience Extraordinary brand position to life in a series of short films and blogs available for viewing online.

The Extraordinary Taxi Ride is currently in progress, taking 22 passengers from all over the world over the course of nine weeks to Western Australia�s most iconic destinations to experience the sights, sounds, people and places that make Western Australia extraordinary. The entire journey is being filmed and broadcast for the world to watch online.

However, the digital aspect of the campaign started long before the taxi set off on its epic road trip. The campaign commenced in February 2010 with the recruitment of Western Australia�s most extraordinary real life taxi driver to be the �hero� of the campaign.

All taxi drivers in Western Australia were invited to enter the competition by recording their details and answering questions over the phone. From more than 460 applications, five finalist cabbies were shortlisted and given the opportunity to spend the next six weeks campaigning for public support. This was where the digital fun began.

Traditional marketing methods were undertaken to drive traffic to the campaign website, encouraging people to vote for their favourite cabbie - sparking both public awareness and media attention of the campaign and the new brand. More than 14,000 individual votes were recorded during this phase of the campaign.

During this phase consumers could also submit their �extraordinary WA destinations� they�d like the taxi to visit on its journey. Utilising Google Maps technology, these destinations were plotted and will be visible for the duration of the campaign.

The next step was to put the call out for passengers to join the winning taxi driver on this journey of a lifetime. Utilising traditional and digital marketing methods, consumers were directed online to submit the �extraordinary reason� they�d like to be a part of the journey with either a video or photo and written submission. Some of this content was also housed on the campaign website, further increasing interest and visitation.

In addition to being run in Australia, the Extraordinary Taxi Ride campaign was activated in five key international markets (UK, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia), with each international market hosting their own website. In the four months that it has been active, the domestic version of the website alone has received almost 150,000 hits, with people spending more than 14,151 hours engaging with the content.

The launch of the Extraordinary Taxi Ride on 9 April saw the focus of the campaign shift, with all PR channels directing people to �follow the journey� online by viewing �films� captured along the way that highlight each of the eleven legs of the journey; as well as through regular blog and image postings.

Regular electronic direct mails are sent to Tourism WA�s email database with links to photos, blogs, films and competitions. The digital component of the campaign is supported by search engine marketing, online advertising, social media including Twitter and traditional marketing and public relations initiatives including television, radio, news articles, print advertising, outdoor and printed collateral all pointing to following the taxi ride online as the call to action.

A Facebook page was also created to distribute campaign content and to maximise social media opportunities by providing a place for passengers to share and discuss their experiences, with links directing people to extraordinarytaxiride.com for further information.

ENDS Tourism WA Media contact: Sarah Monahan Media & PR Manager � Destination 08 9262 1710 / 0423 881 272 sarah.monahan@westernaustralia.com