Tourism Australia restarts ‘G’day’ campaign; launches in Tokyo
Tourism Australia has hit the restart button on its ‘G’day’ campaign, kicking off with OOH instalments in Singapore, London and New York after launching in Tokyo.
The new brand ambassador, Ruby the souvenir kangaroo, will be voiced in English by Australian actress Rose Byrne, and localised for non-English markets, with Japanese actress Maryjun Takahashi to be the voice of Ruby in Japan.
Seriously?! Is that the best we can do?! It’s cringeworthy.
Well, at least Ruby is a female, doh! That is very, very responsible. She clearly hopes for pester power because she should have appeal to the Under 14s who can be relied on to pester their parents into a $40,000 holiday for four. Happens all the time.
Isn’t it time we added something about our major cities, not just the Outback, the Reef and the beach? All our major cities are marvellous and all quite different. (They all have beaches, too, in case you’re getting nervous.) Obviously, I don’t know what’s planned for specialist markets and appeals, but I don’t see Ruby leading a drive for the foodie market, for instance, unless of course you want to talk about eating her.
Hate to be a cynical Cynic but, to me, this really misses the mark. Now I’ll hop it.
Cynic,
Whilst the campaign has some holes, and I agree the cities are regularly omitted from campaigns – I think you need to work in Tourism to understand what sells to international guests is not what will sell to domestic guests. Hate to tell you this but people aren’t coming here because of our restaurants… its our animals, people, landscapes, tourism experiences and nature experiences.
Ruby will not work for all markets – Especially Australians travelling domestically or luxury markets – But Tourism Australia’s job is to get people coming from overseas – This will resonate in Asia in my view which is an enormous market regularly overlooked or targeted effectively.
If used selectively and smartly this could work… (with some improvements)