An advertising campaign to help encourage Australians to take up the $150 rebate and increase domestic travel has been successful thanks to the involvement of radio, according to Commercial Radio Australia CEO Joan Warner.

“Radio was introduced to raise awareness of the scheme after less that ten per cent of the $5 million available was taken up, more than three months after the initiative was announced by the Federal Government… however, following a two-week radio advertising campaign in January this year, nearly all of the money allocated for the initiative was spent,” said Warner.

The rebate was initially promoted only through travel agencies, then a multimedia campaign involving the Internet and newspapers was developed. Radio was introduced to complement the print campaign and advertisements aired for two weeks across 140 commercial radio stations nationally in late January.

According to AusIndustry, the involvement of radio in the advertising campaign resulted in the number of calls more than doubling to the initiative’s hotline.