“Go on holiday: it’s your patriotic duty”
Tourism Australia is set to make a patriotic appeal to bosses to ensure their staff take all of their holiday entitlement as part of a campaign to jumpstart domestic travel.
Speaking at an Australian Marketing Institute session, Leif Stromnes, managing partner of innovation at DDB, which won the Tourism Australia business last year, said that part of the strategy will be about persuading more Aussies to go on holiday. He said: “One of the things Tourism Australia is looking at is how to dial up domestic tourism. There is a lot of accumulated leave in this country and one of the projects we are working on is how to persuade people to take their holidays. There’s an opportunity there for employers to get behind a really good project.”
He said that it was unlikely that another big Paul Hogan style advertising campaign would change the fortunes of Australian tourism again. He said: “We are looking for much more depth with our communications. The days of a Hoges TV ad that fixes all our problems are gone.”
He said that instead the strategy would revolve around “peer interaction” and social media. He said: “The main thing will be about developing more deep conversations.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
Please pardon the deliberate pun, but Why The Bloody Hell Should We?!
User ID not verified.
I offered my patriotism to TA, but it was rejected!!!
An email to Craig Cooper of Carat on 5th December, after a number of conversations, pointing out how we were concerned about the economic issues facing Australia and our willingness to give Tourism Australia over $850k of FREE advertising that would target millions of Internet Users in Australia and World-wide that were looking for holidays. We covered all their issues about content, layout, look and feel….Yet to our dismay and concern for our countries future, they declined!
Sheer frustration at the lack of vision…….
Email dated 5/12/2008
Hi Craig – How are you?
As an Australian, I am writing to express my concern about the reasons as to why Carat are not going to test a new product for their client Tourism Australia that will dramatically increase web traffic to the TA site and promote Australia to millions of internet users world-wide. Especially when the Four week trial period is FREE.
We have developed a powerful online Search Engine Advertising (SEA) tool [Internet Video Billboards]. We have offered this to TA as we know it will be beneficial to the country as a whole. The more tourists, the more money, the more money the less economic pressures. This country relies predominantly on the exporting of raw materials and the tourism industry. Raw material requirements have reduced dramatically causing issues in this sector. The dollar has dropped significantly meaning Australia may be able to profit from increased tourism. To do that we need tourists, and this product will deliver more tourists. Plus we are so sure of the product, that we are going to pay for all setup costs to initiate the trial period.
If TA wishes to cease advertising after the four week trial period, we are more than happy to oblige.
Please read the reasons below from Fiona, as from a business point of view, this does not even seem to have been taken to TA. The excuses below are quite feeble and appalling when considering our countries and the tourism industries future.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Grant
In all, I would like to see all media companies jump on the band wagon and offer free advertising to promote domestic holidaying….Let’s keep this country standing!!!
User ID not verified.
When airlines, hotels, resorts, etc. etc. take their part in being patriotic by NOT slugging parents for taking holidays in the school holiday period, thereby increasing the cost of a trip for ordinary Australian families, we will be more inclined to carry out our side of the patriotic duty.
User ID not verified.