Ellen heads to Australia
Two years after Australia went into a frenzy over a visit from talkshow host Oprah Winfrey, the country is to host another queen of US daytime television – Ellen DeGeneres.
Kidman and DeGeneres announce the Swisse deal on the show today
DeGeneres will visit in Australia in March and record several segments for the show while she is here. She announced the visit during an interview with Nicole Kidman. The announcement will be shown on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres show fast-tracked by Arena to be broadcast tomorrow night.
The visit of Oprah Winfrey was seen as a significant coup for Tourism Australia. Four Australian episodes of the show were broadcast in the US and in 145 other countries in December 2010 and repeated in 2011. It led to more than 86,000 media articles globally and
In the first 10 months of 2012, visitor numbers from the US rose by 4.6% over the last 12 months – the highest growth since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Mumbrella understands that Tourism Australia was not involved in the Ellen deal. Supporting organisations include Destination News South Wales, Tourism Victoria, Qantas and vitamin brand Swisse. Kidman is Swisse’s global ambassador. The brand is about to launch in the US.
The announcement is the first major initiative since Qantas was reported to have severed its ties with Tourism Australia as part of a boardroom row.
Tourism Australia MD Andrew McEvoy welcomed the visit. He said: “It’s terrific that Ellen is coming to Australia. It is great news for Australia and compliments to Swisse on the initiative.
“Ellen has huge appeal within the United States, a key market for us, and will do a fantastic job in shining the media spotlight on the whole country, just as Oprah did for us in 2010.
“As with Oprah, she’ll be sending a big audience across, and a lot of Australian tourism operators will reap the benefits as they get to explore the tourism delights of NSW and Victoria.
“Oprah said her visit was about planting the seed and, with the resurgence in US arrivals in the past twelve months, I’d argue she did that pretty well. I have no doubt that Ellen’s visit will see those seeds grow quite a bit stronger, and maintain that great momentum and reignite US interest in Australia.”
Like the Oprah trip, DeGeneres created hysteria in her audience when she said they could come to Australia too.
Great news.
Can someone start a book as to which media outlet will * hilariously* make her eat Vegemite?
In the QANTAS handbook under “What to do if Oprah retires”
Just in time for Mardi Gras …
Can someone explain what the heck The Daly Tele is doing with that embarrassing Aussie dance for Ellen!?!?
I bet the audience is already looking forward to the schnitzels and boys choir…
Can we swan Ellen for Rove, forever?
How many people does 4.6% represent exactly?
@ WD: Frankly, I’d much prefer she went to Austria.
Another in the smart (& what seems to be increasingly diversified) marketing plays from Swisse.
Good idea Qantas and partners. Happy people are always a great advertisement for Australia and who would not be happy to get a free trip to Sydney & Melbourne. A simple idea with lots of exposure.
Can’t they just get every American chat host to get on the same plane and bring them on masse ? Surely more cost effective than one at a time?
WOW. thats a big plane she holding onto in that picture, where can I get one of them?
Love Ellen D, she’ll have a great time holidaying in Australia.
Idea #Swisse: What I’d like to see in the future is prominent Aussie BRANDS like Swisse forgo high profile celebs to endorse products and try on true blue Aussies for size.
#Project :Why not give first Australians a trial of Swisse products and monitor their journey towards optimal health. In light of the fact Aboriginal Health lags behind non- indigenous Australians, why not run a trial?. In my view, this approach represents a true endorsement of a products quality and capability. I’m aware supplements work in conjunction with other elements pertaining to a healthy lifestyle and not in isolation.
Would this idea be too hard to implement because it’s financially viable for manufacturers ?
Why give already wealthy celebs more perks?
Idea,
Its about the money- its all about the money, take the money away, you have nothing and no one. (my opinion is)The only way your idea would come into fruition would be if a PR company or ad agency came up with your idea, and it recieved exposure as a cleverly disguised goodwill gesture, even then the sincerity would be lost. The primary focus is market share, followed by brand profile, which explains the celeb endorsements.
could someone tell me was there an increase in Australian tourism from the Americans after Oprah visited? Or did it just fizzle out? Just because a different tv host is coming with their audience does not mean more tourist dollars being generated!
Actually there was a 3.7% decline in US tourism after Oprah. Seems like just a ploy from swisse to crack the lucrative US supplements market, rather than for any real tourism benefit. The partnership with QANTAS was really just about latching their unknown (ie unknown in america) brand to a known one to give it some trust and authority with the market.