Sunshine Moments runs from 27 August. What Caloundra venues should do about it.

From 27 August to 27 October, Visit Sunshine Coast is running its Sunshine Moments campaign across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The media buy covers social, video on demand, YouTube, programmatic display and out of home.

That is nine weeks of promotion aimed at three states, landing through the shoulder season when most Caloundra venues have the capacity to take the booking.

Campaigns like this sell the destination rather than the individual business. Visit Sunshine Coast will convince someone in Melbourne that they want to be on the Coast. Whether that person walks into your dining room or the one next door depends on how easy you are to find in the weeks beforehand. Most of the work involved costs nothing.

Get a deal onto your ATDW listing before 27 August

The Australian Tourism Data Warehouse is the national database that feeds tourism listings through to queensland.com, australia.com, visitsunshinecoast.com and roughly sixty other distributor sites. Food and Drink is an eligible listing category, so cafes, restaurants, bars and any venue offering a distinct dining experience for visitors can list.

Visit Sunshine Coast is encouraging operators to attach a deal to their ATDW listing at no cost for the campaign period. Those deals feed through to campaign landing pages and distributor sites while the advertising is running.

If you already have a listing, log in and add your deal this week. New and updated listings go into a review queue and usually take one to two business days to be approved and published, so leaving it until the 26th means missing the opening week.

If you do not have a listing, register at atdw-online.com.au. Eligibility requires an Australian business with a physical location visitors can access and a genuine leisure tourism offering. Queensland operators should confirm current listing costs with Tourism and Events Queensland before registering, since the arrangements for Queensland businesses have changed over the years.

What makes a deal worth listing

A ten per cent discount is rarely worth the effort. It gives a traveller no clear picture of what they are getting, and it teaches regulars to wait for the discount.

A defined experience at a fixed price performs better. Two courses and a glass of local wine for $55. A chef’s tasting board for two on the deck for $40. Coffee and a pastry for $12 before 9am. Fixed price, clear inclusions, and easy for someone scrolling on their phone in Melbourne to picture.

Think about availability as well. If Saturday nights are already full, build the offer around Tuesday to Thursday, or the quiet stretch between 2pm and 5pm. A shoulder season campaign is useful for filling the gaps you have rather than discounting trade you were going to get anyway.

Use a real photograph. One good shot of the dish, in your venue, in daylight, will outperform a stock image or a screenshot of your menu.

Share your own Sunshine Moments

Visit Sunshine Coast is asking operators and locals to post their own Sunshine Moments on social media and tag @visitsunshinecoast. Regional tourism accounts look for content to reshare during a campaign window, and a well shot reel from a Caloundra venue has a reasonable chance of being picked up. It costs nothing and takes a few minutes.

Film the things that only exist here. Golden hour on the water, the first coffee of the morning, your team plating something they are proud of.

Tell us what you are running

Taste Caloundra exists to point people towards good food in this town. If you are running a deal, an event or a new menu during the campaign period, get in touch and we will look at featuring it while Sunshine Moments is live.

The campaign starts on 27 August. Listings that are live before then get the benefit of the full nine weeks.