Guerrilla Marketing – Bali Style

(11/26/2006)

As reported on balidiscovery.com,[See: Where the Bali Hell Are You?]a group of creative and enterprising Australian and Balinese hoteliers and tourism service operators recently launched a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign aimed at helping to kick-start Australian visits to Bali.

Dramatic Response

While hoping to draw a share of media attention to Bali via the campaign, the co-founder of the Little Bali Hotel & Resort Company (LBHRC), Brett Morgan, who launched the campaign, confessed to being 'absolutely gob smacked' by the overwhelming industry reaction to the ad only available via Internet download.

In the first days following the launch of the program on Thursday, November 2, 2006,, Morgan said the LBHRC website had received close on 20,000 unique visitor and his office has been inundated by requests from agency groups, wholesalers and airlines requesting access to LBHRC's campaign footage for promotional purposes. "It's obvious everyone was waiting for someone to do something," he said.

Morgan said further requests also included contact from travel specialists located in India, Japan, the US and particularly in the UK where its originators claim the video clip is fast achieving 'cult' status.

"Apparently the Brits face similar problems marketing the destination," he said.

In describing the response from the U.K,, Morgan explained, "I've heard from several product managers and company owners who have told me they too are massively frustrated about the lack of support for the area in the UK market which shifts tens of thousands of Brits to Bali every year."

The campaign has also received strong response from Bali with hotel membership numbers, currently eight, expected to rise following direct contact from several small hoteliers and two locally-based event organizers.

"It's been amazing – we've also been approached by The Lonely Planet Group in Melbourne which has applauded our effort and offered to support us via the provision of a number of its 'Best of Bali' guide books to give away as promotional prizes."

"We've also heard from a small Pacific-based destination which has asked us if we can help it do something similar as well as several non-travel oriented companies, including a baggage handling company, which have asked if we can apply the concept to its products," he said.

"While we expected some form of knee-jerk reaction, we didn't quite expect this."

Will Garuda Reconsider Dropping Bali as Direct Flight Hub?

Looking ahead, Morgan said, "We're also hoping this campaign will play a role in helping Garuda Indonesia to change its current extreme stance regarding its plans to cut direct Denpasar services ex-east coast Australia which is obviously going to have a major effect on the destination."