In February 2011, four Youtube Symphony Orchestra musicians and four contemporary Australian artists were given a unique musical challenge - create a track influenced by the world’s most inspirational country – Australia.Travelling in pairs, their journeys took them to the most stunning parts of the country, from the remote beauty of Kangaroo Island to the majestic Twelve Apostles. The collaborations resulted in four very different tracks, each one reflective of the diversity of Australia. For the performers it was a trip unlike anything they had ever experienced. For the millions that tuned into Youtube, it was sheer viewing pleasure.

Each episode was crafted with into three components: 1. Introduction of the musicians; where they were from, their personal and musical background and their musical challenge. This helped set up each episode for the viewer.

2. The opportunity to tell their musical journey; their collaboration including their musical struggles and successes, their friendship, the discovery of themselves and their music. This allowed the musicians to open up and express themselves, and consequently allowed the viewer to form a connection with them.

3. Their unique musical track as a music film clip; inspired by the land, the people and the experiences they had shared. This showcased the finale performance of their musical work, matched with the awe-inspiring backdrop of Australia.

This three sequence approach of each film allowed the user to understand the background story, their challenge, the subsequent musical collaboration and the beautiful accomplishment of each. Previewing these films online through YouTube allowed a person who may have stumbled across episode 3 to understand the complete story without watching firstly episode 1.

There were five key media channels utilised for the campaign: 1. Multiplatform media channels were used in this campaign. A sitelet (www.australia.com/makingtracks ) was developed to provide a richer understanding on the musicians, their personal and musical backgrounds, their itineraries across Australia and the journey they shared. With this as a basis, musicians also uploaded written blogs during their trip supported with photography and video clips. This was then extended through social media platforms including facebook and twitter which allowed consumers/fans to interact and comment on their trips and the final episodes. This was also emulated on the musicians own social media platforms to allow their fans with the opportunity to engage with them.The films were so well received that episode 4 was showcased on the big screen in Time Square, New York on March 22, 2011.

2. The episodes were broadcast through the Tourism Australia YouTube branded channel. Each film was released onto the site after production was complete, so there was a staggered release approach of the four episodes to build on momentum. This was also reflected onto social media platforms.

3. The episodes were broadcast through the YTSO2 website. This was a portal dedicated entirely to the project and festival containing additional information on the event and details of all the musicians performing in the orchestra.

4. Making Tracks was leveraged globally through content programs in both traditional and digital media platforms including, pandora.com (US), radio (UK), Fairfax newspapers (Australia) and through Tourism Australia’s Visiting Opinion Leaders Program where influential bloggers covered Making Tracks and the YTSO2 event in the context of Australia as a destination.

5. A digital seeding strategy was executed and utilised via a mixture of bought and earned media through sharing and social channels.

In terms of results, each episode was broadcast through YouTube in the lead up to the final performance and to date have received over 2.7 million views with a significant increase in subscription to the Australia YouTube channel.

In addition this project received the following YouTube Honours: Australia – CAN’T SEE IT TO AMEND IT #1 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Travel & Events - Australia - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=1&s=mp&t=m&cr=AU #1 - Most Discussed (This Month) - Travel & Events - Australia - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=1&s=md&t=m&cr=AU #1 - Top Rated (This Month) - Travel & Events - Australia - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=1&s=tr&t=m&cr=AU #1 - Top Favourite (This Month) - Travel & Events - Australia - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=1&s=mf&t=m&cr=AU #25 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Travel & Events - Australia - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=2&s=mp&t=a&cr=AU Worldwide - CAN’T SEE IT TO AMEND IT #7 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Travel & Events - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=1&s=mp&t=m&cr= #43 - Top Favourite (This Month) - Travel & Events - http://www.youtube.com/videos?pr=&c=19&l=&p=2&s=mf&t=m&cr= Making Tracks received such positive response from viewers that a six minute compilation film of all four episodes was created and streamed live to a global audience in the masthead of YouTube.com as part of the event pre-roll viewed live by 11.1 million. The YouTube Symphony Orchestra final concert to date has been viewed by 33 million globally: • 11.1 million streams during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Grand Finale concert, making it the most watched live music concert on YouTube data (beating U2 at 10 million) • 2.8 million views of the mobile live stream making it the biggest ever YouTube mobile live stream • 19.1 million streams took place as the concert was replayed on YouTube in the following 24 hours after the concert • The total stream transferred 422TB data – the equivalent of sending 145 million mp3 files To leverage off such an event in the digital environment is new ground for Tourism Australia and whilst it is too early to determine if visitation has, or will increase because of the Making Tracks campaign, the positive sentiment, media attention and longevity of such assets post YTSO2 is a compelling platform to provide a flow on affect.