Jimmy Fallon, chemistry and obstacles aplenty; Tourism Australia CMO on new ad rollercoaster
Creative competition for today’s traveller has never been fiercer, according to top marketer Susan Coghill. The CMO talks, obstacles, gut instinct and the Jimmy Fallon integration that’s been years in the making.
From Dubai Tourism’s movie trailer-style ad starring Zac Efron to Switzerland Tourism’s ad featuring Robert De Niro, creative competition for today’s traveller has never been fiercer, according to top marketer Susan Coghill.
Fresh from the global launch of its first brand campaign in six years, Tourism Australia’s chief marketing officer, Ms Coghill, said the $125m Come and Say G’day brand campaign by M&C Saatchi had been a long time in the making. It saw the business overcome many an obstacle and sparked plenty of emotional moments.
Launching in New York last Wednesday, the next instalment of Tourism Australia’s global There’s Nothing Like Australia brand platform featured a CGI souvenir kangaroo, Ruby, with the voice of Aussie actor Rose Byrne.
The new furry brand ambassador is joined by a travelling toy unicorn sidekick, voiced by actor Will Arnett.
By Sunday, the ad had already been watched nearly 8 million times on YouTube.
From aviation capacity challenges to the impact on airfares, travellers who are more worried about their finances and lingering concerns around covid, Ms Coghill said to say there was extreme competition competing for fewer travellers was an understatement.
“We're all fighting for the same travellers, a lot of our competition have had funding boosts so are much more active — coupled with global economic and people’s personal financial factors — it’s been challenging,” Ms Coghill told The Growth Agenda.
“Add this to the fact the global creative work from other tourism bodies has never been better, and of course that means there's a knock-on effect then for our share of voice in the market in the travel tourism category — which is always quite cluttered anyway.”
The new multi-market, mass awareness campaign that invites international travellers to plan and book an Australian holiday kicked off with a soft launch in Japan with out of home ads and a sneak peek at Ruby, followed by the roll out of a full TV ad and short film at a New York media launch on October 20.
As well as TV and social, with more expenditure on YouTube and TikTok than in the past, 3D billboards and out of home ads play a big role in the media mix, along with integrations with specific events such as the T20 cricket.
It also has a behind the scenes film and a mini YouTube series featuring Australian comedian Hamish Blake.
The Growth Agenda can reveal that it also brokered an integration on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon — involving a chat with Rose Byrne as well as the running of the ad on Wednesday.
Ms Coghill said the effort had been years in the making and was a big win for Tourism Australia.
Prior to the overall campaign launch, Ms Coghill said she felt a mix of excitement and nerves, but was proud of the work and was confident it would land in the international markets it was aimed at.
Rolling out globally across 10 markets, compared to its normal three or four, it was a “truly global brand campaign”, Ms Coghill said, and the “significant increase” in market budgets versus past years had been much needed.
As we emerge from the pandemic, Ms Coghill explained how Tourism Australia needed Come and Say G’day to cut through the clutter and stand out on the world stage. “As a result, creativity was vital to the campaign as it will help us to drive impact and build memory structures with travellers around the world,” she said.
The different type of storytelling for Tourism Australia is by design, with Sydney-based Ms Coghill wanting Come and Say G’day to be distinctly, uniquely and unmistakably Australian.
As it’s a global campaign, it needed to stretch across Eastern and Western markets and land in both English and non-English speaking countries. It also needed a campaign with longevity that could run over time.
“That’s how you build memory structures with consumers, which drives consideration and ultimately market share growth,” she said. On the creative direction, Ms Coghill said when you were weighing up something as important as a brand campaign for a nation it was important to do your research.
The TV ad was tested with System1 research which draws on the work of well known marketing gurus Les Binet and Peter Field, whose testing methodology takes into consideration the long term and short-term effect of the ad, using emotional responses to accurately predict the ads effectiveness. Emotion is then turned into an action score, providing a 1–5-star rating of long term growth.
The advert rated on average 4.2 stars strong across key markets - giving the Australian Government agency confidence in its advert.
“If you have your data upfront you will have all the right inputs. Arming yourself with that knowledge sets out a clear brief everyone is working towards, which helps to make right decisions along the way,” she explained.
“Of course, you also need to back your gut instinct and do plenty of sense checking with others to make sure what you’re doing will get the right result.”
Past ad campaigns include its $36m American marketing campaign in 2018 with its Crocodile Dundee inspired ad starring Aussie icon Chris Hemsworth.
In 2019 it went for the Poms with its British-aimed Matesong ad. The $15m push starred singer Kylie Minogue and was aimed at enticing more Brits Down Under.
With the development of Come and Say G’day happening during covid, there were plenty of obstacles to overcome as filming with lockdowns and border closures made it difficult to access the locations in Australia. The erratic Aussie weather also caused many a cancelled shoot.
“There were many nights I was wide awake checking the forecast in locations around the country,” Ms Coghill said.
In terms of highlights, Ms Coghill said the first time they saw Ruby the kangaroo come to life was a “monumental moment” in the development of the campaign.
The second was the “emotional” first time she heard up-and-coming Australian band King Stingray’s demo of Down Under and the third was listening to the chemistry between Rose Byrne and Will Arnett as they bounced off each other during recording.