Strategy
Diving straight into marketing tactics without setting a clear strategy in place is like speaking into a microphone at the biggest auditorium in the world … but forgetting to send out the invitations for people to come.
You’ll be making lots of noise, but no one will be there to hear it. We don’t want that to happen to you.
The Service
Starting anything without a strategy is akin to building a house from the roof down.
A strategy is your marketing foundation and without one, you run the risk of expending your marketing energy in different places to where your audience is hanging out.
We design all of our strategies to be living documents, not large tomes to set and forget. We know marketing changes, along with consumer behaviours as well as your product / service, so it’s important your strategy can move with you – not weigh you down.
While strategy is a broad and loose term, we can assist you with:
- – Campaign Strategy
– Content Strategy
– Social Media Strategy (organic and paid)
– eNewsletter Strategy
– Brand Strategy
– Event Strategy
– Communications Plans
Regardless of the style of strategy, it’s our goal to connect where you currently are, with where you want to be.
The Process
1
KICK OFF
We kick off with a discovery session to get under the hood of your business
2
DRAFT
We go away and draft up the strategy based on the learnings from the discovery and our own research
3
refine
We work with you to refine your goals, set KPIs and ensure you’re comfortable with the direction
4
build
We’ll build you a flighting plan of short, medium and long term actions that will see you kicking your goals
See it in action:
Want a case study with that?
The Brief:
Media Mortar was engaged to deliver a five-year marketing strategy to inspire and drive awareness of the Port precinct along with specific strategies to drive business growth for individual products in the Port of Echuca. These included their historic museum, retail offer, guided tours, functions and events, and paddlesteamer cruise experiences.
1
Research
Conduct desktop and in-person focus groups to understand the current situation.
2
ANALYSE
Analyse existing experiences and activity to identify what’s working and what’s not.
3
CRAFT
Craft a strategy that includes the thinking and the tactics on how to achieve their goals.
4
DELIVER
A comprehensive 5 year strategy with flighting plan so they can get started!
Our Response:
Through both desktop research and in-person focus groups, we developed strategic recommendations to build awareness, increase domestic visitor market and encourage depth of spend with the overarching business goal of increasing revenue.
The five year strategy included:
- Tactical implementation plan and recommended budget.
- Analysis of current visitor experience and identification of opportunities
- Competitor analysis, SWOT and target market research, powered by Localis first-party audience data
- Strategic alignment to state and local tourism strategies
- Brand pillars framework
- Customer journey mapping
The Results:
The strategy was adopted with actions already underway for stage one implementation, putting this historical precinct on the path towards revenue growth and brand awareness nationally.
The challenge:
There’s no doubt, Goondiwindi has been heavily impacted by youth crime – with mainstream media (Courier Mail, Channel 9, Today Show, Sky News, Seven 7 to name a few) broadcasting the devastating impacts of recent crime sprees to the nation. Accordingly, the perception (rightly or wrongly) is that Goondiwindi is no longer safe to visit and their overnight visitor economy is in decline.
The brief was simple – start changing the narrative about Goondiwindi. To do this, our team was engaged to create a communications strategy to build awareness for Goondiwindi and counter the negative coverage with positive news stories about the town.
1
consult
Meet with key stakeholders to understand the issue
2
create
Create key messages that change the narrative
3
plan
Develop a communications strategy and plan aimed at changing perceptions
Our Response:
We developed a proactive PR plan that was anchored to sharing both hard news and softer, human-interest stories about Goondiwindi.
By attempting to balance the scales of the media’s coverage with more positive news stories about Goondiwindi, GRC can expect to stem some of the reputational damage created by media coverage of youth crime.
The strategy aimed to change perceptions about Goondiwindi, by moving the town’s brand awareness from one of default (i.e. ‘don’t go there, it’s not safe’) to one by design (i.e. Goondiwindi starts telling its own stories). To to do this, a PR and earned media approach was proposed, supported by paid media and Council’s own channels. Tactics included but were not limited to: videos, media releases, outside broadcasts, business profiling and award-writing.
The Results:
Our strategy is currently sitting with Council for funding allocation, to commence in July 2025.
It’s acknowledged that changing community perceptions is a long term strategy and will take time to deliver.
The Brief:
One of Australia’s most rugged and raw offroad rallies, the ARB Goondiwindi 400, engaged our team to create an event strategy to “take their event to the next level”. At the time, the event sat at a cross-road of opportunity, having run for 45 years in a similar format. The objectives of the strategy were to:
1
GENERATE
Local economic activity for the host destination, Goondiwindi
2
ATTRACT
External visitation to the destination
3
ENHANCE
The profile and appeal of the destination
4
Increase
Overall event revenue
Our Response:
Our team developed an in-depth event strategy, with a forward-marketing plan anchored to three core opportunities we saw for the event.
1. Event Marketing – establishing clear and achievable event marketing foundations to increase attendance and drive revenue
2. Event Elevations – introducing more experiential touch points to improve the event experience and encourage return visitation
3. Funding Sustainability – find avenues (i.e. grants) to ensure event viability in the face of an aging and/or already committed volunteer base
The Results:
The event strategy developed in 2023 was used by the event to successfully submit a QDEP Grant in 2024 for funding for event marketing.
The strategy was successfully implemented to:
– Increase competitors
– Increase local attendance
– Increase out-of-town attendance
The Brief:
We were approached by CBCo. Brewing (previously Colonial Brewing Company) to create a social media strategy that would help them bring their new brand to life on social media. Their objectives were to:
1
Build
Awareness of the new brand to consumers.
2
Drive
Purchase of product in both venue and online.
3
GROW
An online audience following by showcasing the brand personality through content.
Our Response:
After conducting an in-depth discovery workshop where we asked all the tricky questions:
Why rebrand, what did customers love, what did they hate, what was CBCo. Brewing trying to achieve at a business level, we went away and developed a social media strategy that included the following:
The Results:
Our strategy was unanimously adopted by CBCo. Brewing to power their channels (including our recommendations to amalgamate content with their venue-partner channels).
Media Mortar training provided to their internal team in order for them to manage the channels direct with best-practice posting.
You can view the strategy in action here: @instagram.com/cbco
The Brief:
We were engaged by the event to review the current operations and marketing to create an event marketing strategy that would set the event up for future success. The objectives were simple: create ongoing sustainability and increase viability of the event, which was dependent on volunteer and in-kind contributions to run in its current format.
1
REVIEW
Existing event strategies and documentation to understand the challenges and opportunities.
2
ATTEND
The event to gather guest feedback and understand the operations of the event first hand.
3
PREPARE
An event strategy covering both operational and marketing recommendations to meet the vision of the event.
4
PRESENT
All strategic recommendations to the event committee, council and stakeholders.
Our Response:
Through both desktop research and attending the event, we anchored our strategic recommendations into four key pillars: sustainability, brand awareness, visitation and experience.
Together, these pillars scale up to: drive more ticket sales, talk to new and emerging audiences, nurture existing attendees, create super-fans, build capacity for the event volunteers, foster stakeholder collaboration, and drive more awareness to Texas.
The Results:
The strategy was approved!
The strategy was adopted by the event committee, with actions already underway to improve and build on the 2025 event, putting this much-loved regional event on the path towards event viability.
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Media Mortar Office
43 Gloucester St,
Highgate Hill QLD 4101
hello {@} mediamortar.com.au
0411 085 226