Travel marketers need permission to be bold, says SA Tourism Commission executive director of marketing

South Australian Tourism Commission executive director of marketing, Brent Hill, has said it was the “permission to be bold” in his strategies that led to the 120-hour ad for South Australia which helped turn the state’s declining tourism industry around.

Speaking to travel marketers at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit, Hill said the process began by reviewing the internal brand for the company: “We actually looked at our internal brand and it was really naff and nobody cared about it and it didn’t mean anything. We looked at it and said why can’t we have an internal brand that actually makes us feel good about coming in to work?”

From there, they developed a new internal brand of ‘win hearts, grow futures and change minds’, which Hill said was the kickstart to developing simpler but more dynamic campaigns for the company.