Tuesday, October 28, 2008

An epic brand entertainment campaign

Today I presented at the L21 Rebranding and Repositioning conference in Sydney - a day too early to see Tourism Australia's MD present on 'Rebranding Australia'. This is without a doubt, the biggest brand entertainment campaign of the year.

LOVE:
Scale, ambition and sheer opportunism
Gratuitous product placement in the film (it's so right)
Epic romanticism
Partnership strategy (20th Century Fox, Qantas etc)

NOT SO SURE ABOUT:
Whether it will resonate with international audiences
The 'closed set' nature of the campaign.

I think a campaign that draws on themes of self reflection/personalisation/release AND 'borrows interest' (to quote Faris) from a much anticipated film launch is missing something by not enabling greater participation from audiences.

When I think about what inspires me to visit far away places it's generally the lure of old friends, a cheap deal, a deepheld curiosity, romantic belief or lust for adventure.

But it's the stories - personal tales, inspirational photos - from friends and likeminded folk, that can turn a twinge of fantasy into a trip across the world.

DON'T ENVY:
The person who signs off on the marketing activity for Tourism Australia

Update: You know I just had an idea thanks to Faris' comment. Tourism Australia are spending $40M on their advertising campaign right? We're not talking spare change here people. And we know distance is a significant barrier to people travelling to Australia...

What if they cut their budget in half and gave away $20M worth of flights? Think of the word of mouth, free PR, the stories, the feel good factor! It would be huge! And they'd still get thousands of visitors spending their hard earned currency on our shores.


3 comments:

faris said...

rebranding OZ is a huge claim!

love the idea about the individual stories - could have every expat Brit who went to OZ and stayed explain why they couldn't leave...;)

I lived in and loved Sydney. If it was closer I'd go all the time.

That's the biggest hurdle - the distance...wonder how you could address that...

Kate Richardson said...

Cheap concorde flights? Time travel?

Adam Ferrier said...

Kate what you say about giving away flights is really interesting. With a marketing budget of 40 million you could stop showing people Australia and facilitate them experiencing it.
Further, those ads are shocking (except for Ms Budds performance) - they don't capture the Australia I know and love at all. Why on earth is DDB / Baz trying to re-brand Australia - it's got a very strong and motivating brand. It just needs good communications (and this isn't it)