Tourism Australia’s ‘Come & Say G’Day’ Chapter 2 Aims To Smash “Sea Of Sameness” With Compound Creativity, Localisation & Smarter Media

Tourism Australia has launched the second chapter of its ‘Come and say G’Day’ campaign. It builds on the first campaign from October 2022 (which itself came a whole six years after its predecessor), but features expanded creative executions with handpicked celebrity talent, unique scenarios and, in the mind of CMO Susan Coghill, it goes way beyond traditional tourism ad creative. 

While Ruby the Roo, the CGI kangaroo mascot imagined by previous creative agency M+C Saatchi, returns, she’s now joined by the likes of Robert Irwin, Nigella Lawson, Aussie actor Thomas Weatherall and Chinese actor Yosh Yu. Each of these stars, it’s hoped, will bring a different, more locally resonant flavour to the creative. But fear not, there’s still plenty of unspoilt beach, rainforest and reef paradise in the creative.

“All the talk in the industry at the moment is around compound creativity – the benefit of being consistent over time. That’s what we briefed in three years ago. We wanted an enduring idea,” Coghill told B&T.

After three years, rounds of testing and analysis and some impressive, if occasionally patchy, post-COVID tourism recovery numbers, the jury has handed down its verdict on ‘Come and Say G’Day’ part one: it works.

Susan Coghill during B&T’s CMO Power List earlier this year.

Referencing System1 testing data, Coghill explained that the original campaign was still in the top 1 per cent of work that can drive long-term market share growth. Australia has also seen a 2 percentage point increase in consideration in the markets Tourism Australia buys media (US, UK, China, Japan, India, Germany and South Korea). In its top three markets – the US, UK and China – Tourism Australia has seen a 5 percentage point increase in consideration since the original campaign launched three years ago.

So why change it? In Coghill’s mind, this is evolution, not revolution, and the new campaign will make Aussie taxpayer dollars work harder, generating even more return for the nation through incoming tourists.

“The key change for us is going from trying to find one global talent that resonates in every single market around the world to being more multi-local in our talent and our storytelling. We’re following different travellers with different talent in slightly different executions by market. We think it will help us get more earned value in market, and we think it will help consumers in those markets connect and identify with the advertising more. It will make it easier for them to picture themselves in our destination,” said Coghill.

As one would expect, Nigella Lawson comes into the campaign to focus on the foodie aspects of Australia for the poms. Robert Irwin, recently fresh from his eye-popping Bonds work in the US, is hoping to double down on the US’s sense of intrigue (or morbid fear?) of Australian wildlife. He’s also featuring in the next season of Dancing with the Stars – again highlighting the potential for more earned media value.

Robert Irwin, fully clothed this time.

Indigenous actor and star of Heartbreak High, Weatherall, has been drafted in to serve the local Australian market. Internal tourism remains a significant portion of the economy, after all. Comedian Abareru-kun features to serve the Japanese market. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sara Tendulkar (yes, daughter of Sachin) will front the Indian campaign, and Yu, who models for the likes of Dior, will be the focus for China.

Thomas Weatherall.

“We really focused on the characters and the storytelling. We wanted to make Australia feel really interesting and compelling,” said Coghill.

“[We often talk about] destination marketing as a sea of sameness. It’s a montage of beautiful beaches, eating, nature, wildlife, etc. We wanted to cut through that with something really engaging for consumers, and, credit to our friends at Droga5, they took the idea and made it their own.”

Yosh Yu on the Great Barrier Reef.

Droga5 enlisted Mark Molloy and Stefan Hunt to direct the campaign’s various executions. Molloy is best known in the ad world for Telstra’s ‘This Is Footy Country’ and ‘The Underdogs’ series of films for Apple. Coghill said that his direction, in particular, drew out the characters’ personalities. For what it’s worth, outgoing Accenture Song (parent company of Droga5) CEO David Droga said it was a “privilege and deep responsibility” to have his agency run the campaign for his homeland.

Droga5 global CEO Mark Green added, “We’re proud of our latest campaign for Tourism Australia led by Droga5 ANZ, and feel honoured to partner with such an important client, led by an exceptional team deeply committed to promoting Australia on a global stage.”

Coghill said that Droga5 brought the “best Australian creative minds around the world” to the campaign, but was also able to localise the idea.

“M+C [Saatchi] gave us a really strong, winning platform. I’m so proud of what we did with chapter one, and the results are a credit to the work they did. But the Droga team have taken the work, made it their own and taken it to the next level,” she said.

Like any good tourism ad, the different executions are supercuts of the country’s most spectacular spots: the Sydney Opera House, Great Barrier Reef, vast beaches and vineyards all feature. But so do the Southern Lights in Tasmania and Sydney’s picturesque and charming Watson’s Bay.

But there’s more to this latest campaign than a big, splashy TVC in each market.

“We do celebrate the big tentpole campaigns, and they’re the things that get a lot of attention. But we also create a breadth of content that sits underneath it that helps tell a broader story to more corners of the country, more experiences. Then there’s the work we do across PR, media hosting, broadcast and social media. Calling that business-as-usual marketing doesn’t do it justice. It’s the heavy lifting day in, day out over the years,” said Coghill.

“But we want to make sure the advertising drives salience, it makes Australia interesting and engaging. We’ll never be able to fit everything into every execution by any means.”

The Chinese execution with Yu saw him visit Watson’s Bay, the Great Barrier Reef, Tasmania and, of course, Sydney. Tendaulker, meanwhile, visited Melbourne and, naturally, the MCG.

Big media executions are planned at the Bund in Shanghai, as well as a significant execution in central London to come.

“We’ve created a big suitcase, people will walk through it and see different pieces of [Yu’s] memorabilia and souvenirs he’s brought back home from his trip and stories about it. He’ll be there on the first day doing a media event,” said Coghill of the Shanghai execution.

Coghill told B&T that the first campaign had a media budget of around $125 million over three years. This second chapter, with media and all marketing spend rolled in, comes to $130 million over two years. That second figure includes everything invested in production, talent, media spend across all markets, broadcast, PR and partnerships.

If the first campaign’s success is anything to go by, Tourism Australia – and the Treasury – should have a winner on its hands.

Credits:

Creative strategy and campaign development: Droga5 Sydney

Local market extensions: led by local Accenture Song agencies

Media planning and buying of all paid activity: UM

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