Tourism Australia and filmmaker Baz Luhrmann have created a new destination campaign. Tourism Australia Managing Director Geoff Buckley said the unique opportunity created by the production of Luhrmann's epic film "Australia" was one the organization could not let pass. "We knew that this huge film would create a wave of publicity that would put the country in the spotlight around the globe," he said. "And we found that the film's story had a remarkable resonance for what we do marketing the country as a travel destination. The challenge was always going to be how to ride the power of the film, but with a stand-alone and self-reliant tourism campaign. Getting Baz Luhrmann and his team on board to make that campaign was simply the best result we could hope for."
Nick Baker, executive general manager of marketing for Tourism Australia, said the campaign was unlike any other tourism campaign. "It's cinematic in style, is based on a story with a beginning, middle and end, is sophisticated and highly emotive," he said. "It is not the traditional slide-show of pretty pictures of places and people. The idea stems from Baz's film, which tells the story of Nicole Kidman's character, Lady Sarah Ashley, who has lost her sense of self but who finds adventure, romance and her true self when she comes to Australia. We've made that core storyline into two short-film-like stories of contemporary people who are stressed and disconnected from their loved ones and their true selves, and who find their center and their release in Australia."
Buckley said the campaign would run in all of Tourism Australia's 22 major markets around the world from October 2008 until mid-2009. The campaign will run in cinema, television, print and online, commencing in the U.K. on Oct. 8. The campaign will commence in the U.S. in print and online from November 2008 and on television in January 2009. Michelle Gysberts, vice president of the Americas region, said that this was a strategic decision based on the current economic and political climate in the U.S.
"With the national election and the credit crunch understandably occupying the minds of American consumers at this time, we made the decision to hold back the bulk of our brand advertising spend until early next year," Gysberts said. "We also wanted to wait until after 20th Century Fox's movie campaign. This way Australia is top of mind for American consumers from October right through to March 2009." For more information, visit www.australia.com.
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