Bringing back an icon: The strategy behind Tourism Australia’s Crocodile Dundee campaign
Resurrecting a three-decade-old icon was Tourism Australia’s solution to North Americans’ reluctance to travel Down Under. Mumbrella’s Paul Wallbank explains how the organisation tapped into Hollywood’s enthusiasm for remakes and used programmatic to reinvent Australia’s brand.
“In 2018, it was time for an iconic Australian to come home,” says Geoff Ikin, general manager, global media, PR and social, Tourism Australia.
“One of the best-performing ads we’ve done was ‘Shrimp on the barbie’. 34 years ago. Nothing has cut through more than that,” he says.
Many don’t make the journey because, as a rule, Americans only get two weeks off work. That has, and always will be, Tourism Australia’s biggest problem in attracting more visitors from the US
I love the ad.
However, the problem isn’t awareness of Australia being a great place to visit. Mention you are an Aussie to most of our American friends, and 90% will utter “I have always wanted to go there” as their first response. There is no awareness problem that needs solving. It is a simple geography problem, which marketing can’t solve. It isn’t even cost, it is time.