Ruby the Roo’s French kiss-off

Tourism Australia’s new $125m advertising campaign has received top marks from international audiences with one notable exception | WATCH

Tourism Australia has rolled out its new $125m global advertising campaign featuring Ruby the Roo, received top marks from several key markets — with the exception of France.

Previewed last week, the 60-second advertisement follows the adventures of Ruby the toy kangaroo voiced by actor Rose Byrne, and her souvenir shop friend unicorn Louie, voiced by Canadian actor Will Arnett.

Together the pair visit a series of landmarks including the Great Barrier Reef, Freycinet National Park and Maria Island in Tasmania, the Sydney Opera House and Uluru.

The striking images are overlaid to a remake of Men at Work’s Down Under by up-and-coming Australian band King Stingray who sing in English and the indigenous language Yolngu Matha.

Research undertaken before the ad’s global release on Wednesday, showed the UK, US, Singapore, South Korea and Japan rated the new campaign five out of five, while Germany, India and China gave it a four.

An Australian test audience also marked the 60-second commercial four out of five, while the French focus group thought it was a three out of five.

Tourism Australia's $125m campaign focuses on the travels of Ruby the Roo and her souvenir shop buddy Louie the unicorn.

Tourism Australia managing director Philippa Harrison said with many countries rolling out new campaigns in the wake of the Covid pandemic, it was important to deliver something that would cut through to an international audience.

“People recognise kangaroos as Australian — she can’t be used anywhere else,” Ms Harrison said.

“The other thing is, we wanted to very deliberately lean into the light and joy of Ruby at this moment in time and remind people an Australian holiday will give them that.”

She said the international testing had gone “really well” with the French response potentially soured by Australia’s withdrawal from a submarine contract.

“We’re told they’re a hard market. It was also tested around the time they weren’t very happy with us,” Ms Harrison said.

“I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.”

 

In terms of expenditure, the new twist on the Come and Say G’Day campaign first used in 1984, is far from the most expensive in Tourism Australia’s history.

That honour goes to “Australia: A Different Light” launched in 2004 at a cost $360m and featuring Richie Benaud, poet Les Murray and British talk show host Michael Parkinson.

“There’s Nothing Like Australia” rolled out in 2010 burned through $250m and the 2006 “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign fronted by Lara Bingle cost $180m.

Ms Harrison said the new campaign had the hopes of Australia’s embattled tourism industry riding on it, in terms of reinvigorating international travel Down Under.

Australian actor Rose Byrn, is the voice of Ruby.

“We’re very cognisant that we’ve been closed for two years, and we’re very cognisant that we have to rebuild our inbound visitor economy so this is an important one for us,” she said.

“We know that there are a lot of hurdles in terms of the rebuild and our job is to focus on the long term demand because if that goes away that’s a much harder thing to fix.”

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hailed the new campaign as perfectly timed in terms of restarting the tourism sector.

ACCI tourism executive chair John Hart said they had been advocating for a strong international marketing effort, and Ruby the roo “hit the mark”.

“This campaign is vitally important in helping the tourism sector bounce back from the impact of border closures and returning inbound tourism to its previous growth trajectory,” Mr Hart said.

As well as the 60-second ad, Tourism Australia has produced an eight-minute short film as a “backstory” of Ruby and Louie.

The film would likely be shown in cinemas overseas, as the campaign unfolded.

Ms Harrison said the character of Ruby may also pop up in marketing for Tourism Australia partners, such as Qantas the “flying kangaroo”.

“When you work with a celebrity there’s restrictions around how they where they appear and they certainly don’t want to appear in commercial partnerships so Ruby is available there which leans into her versatility,” she said.