Event Buzz
7m+ social impressions
Metric
Values
Metric
Values
Situation
Visit Seattle sought to position Seattle as an essential destination for Australia’s trendy “SINKS and DINKS”, coffee-loving crowd. As the birthplace of Starbucks, Seattle has long been a coffee mecca, renowned for its vibrant food and drink scene, making it an ideal city for connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike. To reach Australians with a passion for specialty coffee, Visit Seattle partnered with Toby’s Estate, a popular Australian specialty coffee roaster with a dedicated customer base and extensive social media following. Building on the success of Toby’s Estate’s annual “Octobysfest” competition in 2023, which encourages customers to vote for their favourite Toby’s Estate café, the 2024 campaign introduced an enticing incentive: a coffee-themed trip to Seattle for one lucky voter. The prize included flights, accommodation, and a coffee tour through Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market, immersing the winner in Seattle’s renowned coffee culture.
Action
In 2024, Toby’s Estate and Visit Seattle relaunched the Octobysfest competition, offering a coffee-themed trip to Seattle as the grand prize. Customers were invited to vote for their favourite Toby’s Estate café, with each vote serving as an entry into the draw. To maximise campaign reach, Toby’s Estate invested in co-promotion, implementing a multi-channel promotional strategy. This included creating a dedicated landing page showcasing competition details and commissioning paid content on the city guide Concrete Playground plus a range of owned channel marketing initiatives. Engaging posts were shared across Toby’s Estate’s Facebook and Instagram channels, alongside an email marketing campaign. Beautifully designed in-store signage was placed at over 200 cafés across Australia to encourage participation, and stickers were added to all coffee cups sold throughout October to promote the competition further and take the campaign offline in a new way. Individual cafés also supported the campaign by sharing it on their social media channels.
Results
The 2024 Octobysfest campaign exceeded expectations and delivered impressive results. It generated over 1.6 million total digital and social impressions, surpassing the target of 990,000. The Concrete Playground article alone achieved 45,342 reads and the campaign attracted 10,148 entries. A follow-up email was sent to the competition entrants who opted in for future communications, ensuring ongoing engagement with Seattle.
The collaboration effectively positioned Seattle as a must-visit destination for Australian coffee lovers, aligning Seattle’s coffee heritage with Australia’s café culture. Through targeted digital and in-store promotions, the campaign showcased Seattle’s coffee and culinary landscape, boosting its appeal as a vibrant destination. It strengthened brand awareness and consideration in Australia, creating a strong foundation for future trade activities in 2025 thanks to a new first party database that was created as a result in the campaign.
