Kangaroos and koalas

Australia’s biggest effort in six years to woo Americans, Brits, Germans and multiple markets across Asia, except China, is textbook marketing stuff. Animated kangaroos and unicorns as mates in a storyline of adventure and discovery, Hollywood voiceovers by Will Arnett (Arrested Development, Lego Batman) and Australia’s Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, X-Men), The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef and “G’day” are all packed into the new campaign from Tourism Australia, M&C Saatchi and Finch.   

If this global effort doesn’t work putting Australia back on the consideration radar of international long-haul travellers... well, throw out the marketing textbooks.

Early signals from System1’s work on ad campaigns globally puts this latest effort from Tourism Australia among the most effective work on record for any brand. In the US, UK, Singapore, South Korea and Japan, the new “Come and Say G’day” campaign has landed a rare “exceptional” five star rating in System 1’s consumer research, achieved by just 1 per cent of global ads – 53 per cent of campaigns globally log a one star rating, 30 per cent earn two stars. The notoriously difficult French market scored the lowest for the new campaign with a three-star – which 13 per cent of ads achieve in System 1’s database. 

On that basis, Australia’s multi-million effort to compete with a slew of “hyper-competition” from international holiday destinations wanting to kick-start their post-Covid economies looks promising.    

TA’s international consumer research shows Australia’s icons remain critical to getting attention and back on the consideration set of international long-haul travellers.

Extreme competition

TA’s CMO Susan Coghill told Mi3 Australia is back on the world stage in a “moment of extreme competition” in international tourism – Robert De Niro is spruiking Switzerland, Dubai has released a series of big-budget movie-style trailers and even Fiji is on the front-foot globally. 

“We have to work incredibly hard to make sure we are winning in consideration. If we don't win in consideration, nothing else we do in the [marketing] funnel is going to make a difference. If we are not top of mind, if we don't have that mental availability, then we’re in trouble," Coghill told Mi3.

"From all the marketing effectiveness people that we've spoken to, we know that everyone's brains are lazy – it doesn't want to expend energy making decisions. So for pretty much any decision, you will only hold two or three brands or options in your mind, whether it's a candy bar, a home loan or a holiday destination," she added. "If we aren't top of mind, if we aren't loud and proud, if we don't have a consistent presence with consumers, we will easily fall off that consideration list after being closed off for two years in a pandemic. I've got to make sure that we get back on top of that consideration list."

Queue the marketing sciences, advertising effectiveness gurus and the lessons from other sectors. Coghill thinks consumer packaged goods brands hold valuable insights for international tourism marketing. It’s why animated characters – Ruby the Kangaroo (Rose Byrne) and Louie the toy unicorn (Will Arnett) – share the limelight with Australia’s icons; they immediately create and cement mental availability, or shortcuts, for traveller recall.             

Be like packaged goods 

“We've sort of defined our principles and practices of destination marketing while taking some learning from other categories like packaged goods,” said Coghill. “It has 100 years of brand management history and established rules of growth, if you will. They know how to manage a brand and manage a product through to growth. So we've invested in understanding our brand codes across markets and what the shorthand for Australia is that we need to tap into when we try and again rekindle high-yielding travellers' love for Australia," she added. "Not just why they choose Australia, but why they choose any long haul destination. Most big countries have woken up to the value of tourism out of this pandemic and therefore they are funding the tourism bodies better. We're seeing greater spend levels and we're seeing more creative work coming from the market.”

Which means everybody has to work harder.

Down Under makeover 

The flagship TV commercials and short film are backed by broader out-of-home, print and digital ad executions in key markets along with content and PR. TA is also using a just released remake of Men At Work's Down Under soundtrack by emerging indigenous band King Stingray. 

“We've got a significant increase this year in our in marketing budgets,” says Coghill. “And that is courtesy of our government, which has given us money over the past couple of years to drive both domestic and international marketing. We've rolled over some budgets – the nature of the past two years where we haven't always been open have allowed us to apply budget to this year, which is amazing. We’ve spent the last year, two years, really building our foundations. We're building a creative idea platform that should give us some longevity.”