Dining and Entertainment Program

Dining and Entertainment Program 1

The Program ran for the First Time on March 29 2022.

This COVID business stimulus program focused on supporting hospitality and entertainment businesses across the state by encouraging Victorians to get out and spend on eligible food, drink, and events. It only ran on certain days, in some council areas (excluding the City of Melbourne). A total of $60 million was available for customers to claim back under the program.
(made up of $30 million for Dining and $30 million for Entertainment). They had to be claimed separately.

My role was to:

1. Create program web pages and make improvements. Create graphics for the program. I changed the application button colours (light blue and mid blue) and aligned the FAQs with the program accordion, making it more user-friendly. Made program graphics in Photoshop (people drinking wine in Yarra Valley).

2. Uploaded files/resources and suggested further improvements…
   such as adding extra non-English headings in the same style as COVID website Signs posters templates page.

3. We were not allowed to proceed with advertising due to the overrun of a similar program, “Melbourne Money”.

4. As a result, to promote the program, I went directly to councils and local MPs, and also promoted it on the COVID website.

5. My department oversaw the local government for the state government, so we included this information in our enews to them. (Bayside and Stonnington councils were very quick with posts about the program.)

6. Analytics, UX and feedback of the program
   I observed that it was confusing for users due to the differing “rules and requirements” for “entertainment” and“food/drink”.
   I suggested making a more user-friendly, much simpler program with fewer rules/requirements if we were to run the program again.

See the program 1 >>

Dining and Entertainment Program 2

The program was re-launched on 19 September 2022.
As Program 1 didn’t spend the full $60 million in funding, we suggested that it could be reconsidered. The relaunch, based on my user feedback, offers a faster and more intuitive experience. The programme’s relaunch merged the confusing “two claim” processes into one. It expanded access to seven-day-a-week and included all council areas, making it a simpler and easier program to explain to users. Premier Dan Andrews promoted the programme on his high-profile social media, and we ran an advertising campaign. This all helped make the programme launch significantly stronger than Program 1.
My role was to:

1. Create web page & edit main program graphics.

2. Test everything, including posting to social media. I suggested a few small improvements.

3. Shut down the program with new “program ended” graphics. The program ended 3 weeks early because it was so popular.

4. Provide program reporting and feedback.

See the program 2 >>

The second time we ran the program, it became the Victorian State Government's most popular program in 2022 apart from COVID-19 content, capturing between 47% and 59% of all live traffic on vic.gov.au during its run. We had to end the program three weeks early due to funding exhaustion. It was significantly more popular and easier for users to claim than during its initial run.