Dundee continues to drive American tourism with ‘Why Australia’ video series via Droga5, New York

Tourism Australia has released a new online video series as part of its A$36-million USA marketing push aimed at supercharging American tourism Down Under via Droga5, New York.

Following the launch of Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns, the movie that was actually a tourism ad for Australia, the five new Why Australia episodes star American actor Danny McBride and a cast of well-known Friends of Australia including Chris Hemsworth, Curtis Stone, Matt Wright and Jessica Mauboy.

Highlighting each of Australia’s states and territories, the renowned Aussies share their personal stories and insights on Australia’s food and wine, nature and wildlife, aquatic and coastal experiences, culture and heritage and sport and events.

VIEW THE AQUATIC & COASTAL EPISODE

VIEW THE NATURE & WILDLIFE EPISODE

VIEW THE CULTURE EPISODE

VIEW THE SPORTS & EVENTS EPISODE

VIEW THE FOOD & WINE EPISODE

Tourism Australia chief marketing officer Lisa Ronson said its Why Australia content series aimed to capitalise upon the hype surrounding Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns.

Says Ronson: “We couldn’t be happier with the reaction to our Super Bowl ad. The ad and the teasers that preceded it caught the attention and the imagination of millions of Americans and have given us an unprecedented platform to now convert that interest into travel bookings.

“Why Australia is part of that conversion exercise. The content adds depth and colour to our destination story by harnessing some of our country’s best known international stars to show the high value American traveller some of Australia’s top destinations and best experiences.

“Each of these short videos is informative, entertaining and tailored to highlight locations, products and experiences that we know will resonate strongly with our higher yielding target traveller – from beaches and culture, to food and events.”

Tourism Australia’s campaign activity in the US includes a dedicated campaign ‘marketplace’ with tailored holiday offers from more than 20 campaign partners, including Qantas, American Airlines and Wine Australia on Australia.com.

Immediately following broadcast, Tourism Australia experienced record traffic to Australia.com, with the website attracting visitors from more than 10,000 US towns and cities. Feedback from our airline and key distribution partners has also been extremely positive.

• Qantas Vacations reported the company experienced increased website traffic and double the normal number of leads within the first 24 hours of the ad airing.

• Aspire Down Under saw a strong response to its travel package featured in the Dundee campaign, with a 30 per cent jump in leads compared to the same period last year, and Australia sales expected to increase 42 per cent year on year.

• Travel company Down Under Answers saw web traffic quadruple the week after the launch, with ongoing enquiries being received for Australia as a result of the ad and surrounding media.

While the campaign is still in its early stages initial results have been positive:

• Since the launch, Dundee has amassed more than 100 million video views on social media, generated more than 12,000 media articles and delivered over $74 million in estimated advertising value.

• The campaign has achieved a social media reach of approximately 890 million across multiple

 platforms with 80% of this US-based.

• The ad was ranked in the Top 5 best ads in Super Bowl by Adweek, Bleecher Report, Washington Post and the top 6 funniest commercials by USA Today and was also the highest searched Super Bowl campaign this year, according to Google.

Part of its global Masterbrand There’s Nothing Like Australia, the new campaign is the biggest single investment Tourism Australia has made in the US market since Paul Hogan’s famous Come Say G’day ads over 30 years ago.

Agency: Droga5 NY

PR Consultant: Kovert Creative