BY JAMES WILKINSON
Diners at Positively Wellington Tourism’s pop-up WLG restaurant in Melbourne have been given free tickets from Air New Zealand in what will go down as one of the best marketing stunts of the year.
With three-course meals for just $35 made by Wellington’s top chefs – Black Barn Bistro’s Terry Lowe, Logan Brown Restaurant’s Shaun Clouston, The Larder’s Jacob Brown, Boulcott Street Bistro’s Rex Morgan and Capitol Restaurant’s Tom Hutchinson – it’s no surprise that 500 tickets or WLG restaurant in Fitzroy sold out in just 25 minutes.
But what was even more surprising was the arrival of Air New Zealand cabin crew at the restaurant on Tuesday night (Nov 22) who performed a safety demonstration before handing out free tickets to Wellington for all 60 diners at WLG.
Air New Zealand’s Australia Marketing Manager Kelly Miller said the ticket giveaway was done to highlight the airline’s increased frequency of flights to Wellington in conjunction with Virgin Australia.
“Through our alliance with Virgin Australia, we are committed to keeping our fares low, frequency high, and being an airline that Australians can depend on,” she said. “We also like to do things a bit differently at Air New Zealand and have a bit of fun with our marketing.”
Bookings for WLG restaurant, open from November 15-27, were available exclusively through Time Out Melbourne’s website and the Dimmi booking engine.
Time Out Australia’s Commercial Director Michael Rodrigues said the WLG campaign was a huge success and was done in true Time Out fashion.
“Selling 500 tickets in just 25 minutes was a great result,” he said. “This is the second time we’ve done a pop-up WLG restaurant (there was one in Sydney last year) and again it’s been great to work on an exciting campaign to do something outside the square with Positively Wellington Tourism.
“It’s been an exciting time for our company with the launch of Time Out Melbourne magazine this month and the pop-up WLG restaurant has been been something fun to have been involved in and great for our readers,” he said.
Rodrigues said the WLG campaign included: selling tickets exclusively through Time Out Melbourne; running promotions in Time Out Sydney and Time Out Melbourne; giving away 10 double passes to Time Out readers; running bespoke email campaigns; and teasers through Time Out’s social media pages, including Facebook and Twitter.