DDB Sydney launches ‘There’s nothing like Australia’ campaign for Tourism Australia
Australians are being invited to be part of Australia’s next international tourism campaign and share their favourite Australian holiday stories with the world, Tourism Australia’s managing director Andrew McEvoy announced today.
The new campaign, via DDB Sydney, with the tagline There’s nothing like Australia, is being developed in two phases. The first phase invites Australians to share their personal stories of where they live and holiday in Australia to show the world why they should visit.
McEvoy said the campaign has been developed to help createpowerful word-of-mouth discussion about Australia to encourage othersto travel to and through Australia: “For years Australians have seenand heard about Australia’s tourism marketing and have been verypassionate about how our country is promoted overseas,” McEvoy said.
“In fact our research shows that 81 per cent of Australians agree thatevery Australian can help promote our tourism industry. Now is theirchance to get involved.
“Australians are the experts on what is unique and special about theircountry and we want to share this with potential travellers in a waythat will make them want to come and visit our country,” McEvoy said.
From 15 April to 12 May 2010 Australians will have the chance to uploadwhy they think There’s nothing like Australia with a photo on to www.nothinglikeaustralia.com, a website created by Tourism Australia for the new promotion.
Tourism Australia will use all those entries to create a newinteractive map of Australia, made up of all the things Australiansthink are special about their country. It will be searchable byexperience type, location, and by 1,000 keywords. That map will behoused on www.australia.com, which attracts more than a million unique visitors each month, and also at www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.
Tourism Australia will then choose a number of the best entries fromAustralians to be used in online and print advertising globally.
Entrants will also be eligible to win prizes. Following the close ofthe promotion on 12 May, a winner will be chosen from each state andterritory to win an Australian holiday valued at $5,000. An overallwinner will then be selected to win the ultimate Australian holidayvalued at $25,000.
Mr McEvoy said that online and social media was becoming anincreasingly important for promoting Australia internationally as atourist destination.
“We have had a lot of success on our Facebook page, with 370,000 fans,making it the most successful destination site in the world,” McEvoysaid.
“This kind of success proves that the digital space is where we canreally make our mark and that marketing Australia is not longer aboutthe traditional 30 second television commercial.”
The second phase of the campaign, which will be announced in May 2010,will include a video piece to be broadcast in cinemas,television and online.
88 Comments
There’s no other store like …
Is this part of the Brand Australia program? Or is this a separate campaign from DDB as Tourism Australia’s agency of record?
Australia. like.no.other
Australia: It’s more than just a country.
Australians are nothing.
Australians are nothing like poms.
Where the bloody hell is the idea?
Yeah Australians are awesome and poms are weaklings.
brilliant line guys!!! I love the dots at the end – I presume it indicate there’s more to come – like adventure, fun times, smiles and intrigue…
Keep up the good work…
i would imagine the first rule when advertising the “real australia” is that you would have “real photography”…. rather than some rather poor manipulated pastiche
I hope this press release is a day early.
Sharing stories?! You mean its taken DDB two years to come up with the same idea as the Northern Territory……
If this had been announced a day later I’d be calling ‘April fools!’.
“…81 per cent of Australians agree that every Australian can help promote our tourism industry.”
Does that mean they want to?
I was so excited to hear that, after 2 years DDB and ATC were announcing the new campaign to put Australia back on the tourism map (well, at least not to be a laughing stock!) and then …
This is not it.
Nice strategy, lame line and dismal photo shop execution.
So, we gotta wait again…
Well, at least the line isn’t;
“There’s no other country like Australia”
Instead, you chose an unattractive way to say the same thing. .
But it does bail you out of plagiarism.
Serious, SO yawn. I’m so sick of people jumping on the ‘let’s let people get involved’ bandwagon. They probably thought “Australian’s are so passionate about their own country” was an insight.
And didn’t Singapore have an equally vague line, that reeks of a team of people not being able to put their finger on the one distinctive powerful truth about Australia?
bugger me. Is that really the best they can come up with?
very campaignable and versatile but it’s an account man’s ad – no originality at all.
presumably stage 2 is specific targetted campaigns
there’s nothing like…….
– wine
– wildlife
– beaches
– ayers rock
– aboriginals
etc
stage 3 could well be
there’s nothing like……
a big agency pitch
The ATC and the Minister are sitting back thinking; ‘Hey guys, the campaign is a slow burner, you’ll see!!!”
Sorry, it is Dead on Arrival.
Flat out awful. And above all, scared!!!
This slogan would work for Tourism Australia “So far, so good”
Come n say g’day!
Borrrrrrrrrrring as
I’d bet a lot of money on this not being DDB’s first, second or third preferred idea.
The lack of any credits would be the giveaway.
And why, if this is an international campaign, are ‘Australians’ doing the social part?
Shouldn’t it be international types?
Go to Youtube.
See how inspiring, uplifting, how motivating, how brilliant a campaign could have been based on Australia’s talking about Australia.
See New Yorkers starring in, “I love New York commercials”.
And then feel sad at our flat, sad, bad effort.
Seeing the word, ‘nothing’ and, ‘Australia’ in the same sentence creates almost as much negativity as ‘bloody’ and ‘hell’.
This is a truly tragic.
Surely it has to be the client behind this?
I get so tired of brands using ‘uniqueness’ as a strategy.
Sony did it with ‘Like no other’.
DJs did it with ‘There’s no other store like…’
And now the ATC is doing it.
It’s vague and unoriginal and leaves you wondering, HOW is it unique?
The truly great strategies actually identify a point of difference.
NZ, for eg, was all about ‘purity’. Now it’s about ‘youthfulness’. Great strategies that tap into why people would want to go there. The last great Aussie tourism campaign ‘Say g’day’ subtly told us that Australia was a friendly place to visit.
This tells us nothing.
Nothing? Some beaches, bridges and boats are a little like ours…
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/BRI/005-hellgate.jpg
Geez guys, lame. Plus http://www.visitnsw.com/
“New South Wales – There’s no place like it.”
Terrible, truly terrible.
So basically the strategy is that they’re asking Australians to play Chatroulette with their holiday snaps for a bunch of bored Yanks and Germans?
Wreaks of client butchering.
“Where the bloody hell are you?” got into the vernacular, it’s still used today, why even in a SMH article for a missing lottery winner. It achieved global PR and got people talking here and overseas.
This piece of wallpaper crap will be forgotten. As for the shared stories, again similar to Tourism NSW TVC campaign where people would talk about what they loved about a particular part of the region.
What a let down. See what you have done Mr. Rudd, poo pooing what was done by the last lot and not really letting agencies do what they are good at. Try running the fucking country properly first, you know what you were elected to do.
I’d rather not tell the rest of the world and keep my favourite holiday spots tourist free – just the way I like it
The Tourism Oz marketers must have killed DDB’s better ideas… this is a public servants idea!
Time for a change at Tourism Oz – those guys have had 5 years to do something that will actually bring more tourists in – not send ’em to sleep! The Minister should really let them all go into other areas of the public service
Well obviously the last campaign went down as well as the movie…what was its name? Oh yes, Australia.
What a waste of time and money that over inflated folly turned out to be. Rubbish campaign overall. TV element, sure beautiful to look at but just so dumb. Waste of money. Dreadful idea but good for winning a pitch perhaps.
And now this.
There’s nothing like crowdsourcing.
Australia – it’s fair dinkum.
To be honest, if they’d said “there’s nothing like New Zealand” it would be credible.
But this campaign is Deadly Dull.
And very Bloody Boring.
BEST HOLIDAY STORY IN THE WORLD
Australia – it’s fair dinkum.
So the proposition is “Australia is unique”?? Genius!
And it appears Tourism Australia don’t know what to say support this so they’re asking the rest of the country to fill in the gaps for them.
Using social media big time makes sense. But not putting an idea around it sucks. Are they hoping if we throw enough stuff at the world that something will stick? Here’s hoping that someone out there knows how to push the buttons of Japanese office ladies, American retirees, Dutch backpackers, young mums from Hong Kong………
Sadly this is a campaign from a gun shy organisation that is having to pander to political and industry stakeholders. As a hollow shell waiting to be filled in by others, it is designed to not offend anyone. Sadly it’s also designed to be assigned to the dust bin of history – no doubt after first being doggedly defended for two or three years with questionable statistics and factoids about its effectiveness.
Put another shrimp on the barbie.
VISIT THE REAL AUSTRALIA, STAY IN HOLIDAY PARKS, COASTAL, INLAND OR OUTBACK, THERE WILL BE MEMORIES AND EXPERIENCES YOU WILL TREASURE FOREVER. MEET TRUE BLUE AUSTRALIANS IN A TRUE BLUE AUSTRALIAN GETAWAY. THERES NOTHING QUITE LIKE AUSTRALIA.
I copped a lot of heat for saying the last campaign was a disaster (I was proven right). Several people at M&C still won’t talk to me.
Having been briefed on the entire campaign, not just a press release and a couple of pics that are not the campaign, I’m betting this will work. Yes, the tagline is safe, even dull. But this is not a campaign anchored in in a 30-sec TVC or an in your face viral which is meant to grab media column inches and create website hits. It’s not a sugar-coated caffeine hit. When the punters see how it works online, I reckon they will buy into it, and so will the folks overseas.
I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Would love to see a few less anon comments too. If you have an opinion, be proud or stay silent. Anonymous bilge does your industry no credit.
See, the problem here is the slogan’s ripe for a brandjacking.
God, 43 comments and I’m the first person willing to put my real name to one. Sad.
Simon,
You don’t work in the ad business, we do. Putting our real names to comments could be career limiting!
6.43 please stop using the tired old “website hits” as that is from a person who does not know about digital. It’s about unique visitors… hits are simply a smack to the server. Many people over time will produce multiple “hits”.
Well said 7:05!
Author credited bilge The Australian often publishes does your industry no credit. Go and interview one of the Murdochs on some f_king topic again. Or keep your petty war going with the Fairfax papers. Really kid, tell your colleagues to grow up!
p.s. Bet the facebook page get’s hacked.
Click on the website link and you’ll see a bunch of DDB staff holiday snaps.
Simon, I’m betting you’re wrong and this bombs out, big time.
To be talked about or engage people, it needs to be interesting and this is not and it’s just the lazy, hackeyened type of work that gets churned out time and time again, and forgotten time and time again.
No one gives a fuck about Australia as a holiday destination. If they did they’d be here in droves already.
And it’s Anonymous with a capital ‘A’.
Is it not a Brad Paisley song “Aint nothing like …….” from Mud on the Tyres. I still quite like the idea of Australians participating, why not. If we can’t sell what is not here, let’s sell what is here and no-one knows that better than the people who actually love living here. If you don’t it maybe time for some soul searching. Best wishes for your future. I know where mine is.
Great campaign! Hope it will work for Australians themselves, but why not increase the potential by making the first phase more open to the world?
It’s one thing to have someone proudly talking about his own place, it’s even better to have other people talking about how great the place is.
And where is the Youtube channel?
Hey Simon, I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for ya!
I like this,. It’s a tough brief. I could imagine the target for locals is relatively easy, but the target for overseas is about 45 different demographics, cultures, languages and everything else. At the very least, they kept it simple, engaging and relevant.
Nice work Matt, hope it goes well.
Simon,
When you and your fellow journos make the effort to find the real stories behind these and the other campaigns, then maybe others will stand up. Stop relying on press packs and talking to the usual suspects. Ask some hard questions. The rot goes back a decade.
Simon,
I don’t believe you are qualified to critique any campaign. You have no agency experience, no marketing experience, no strategy experience and no academic qualification in communications.
By all means comment, but don’t flatter yourself as an expert.
I’ve got one for those travelling on the British pound:
Australia. Expensive, but worth it.
Just a general observation here.
The three categories that seem to fire up, by far, the most passionate debate, defensiveness and outright hatred on this blog are: Beer, Banking and Tourism. In other words, a holy trinity of Booze, Cash and Not Being At Work. And they say Australia has no real culture. Nah, I think you just need to know where to look.
There’s nothing.
We’ve got their Twitter: @NothinglikeAus
plus Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/…..3872852452
plus the Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nothinglikeaustralia
Ozzie Tourism and their Ozzie ad agency: Fail.
So you have a copy of my resume then Edward? Know what I have done in nearly 30 years of working life?
I have never claimed to be an expert but I do have one qualification, I’m a consumer. My opinion is just that, my opinion, but it does come from having been briefed on the entire strategy.
I fully appreciate that much of what goes on here is anon because of the nature of the industry. It’s a shame because you can never know the true motivation of the opinion giver. Again, just my opinion.
If the campaign tanks I’ll be the first to report it, and to acknowledge I was wrong. (give us a call “Anon with a capital A”, happy to have a side bet)
Anyway, if I stick my head up here, I deserve everything I get.
Safe and happy Easter all.
pfft,
take anonymity out of this blog, and it’d dry up faster than dogshit in the sun. As others have pointed out, it’s impossible for all but those held in the very highest regard to give negative criticism, without it coming back to bite them on the arse career-wise. This is a severely bitchy industry, with some very fragile egos. Grudges are held, and held deeply.
The only problem with this blog is that too many people seem to lack the intelligence or skill to actually argue their point; instead resorting to banalities. It’s kind of embarrassing when your fellow comms professionals seemingly can’t spell or construct a coherent sentence, let alone an argument.
But I’ve never understood the whole “put your name to it or fuck off” mentality. A bunch of respected journalists had a field-day on crikey.com doing exactly what we do here: hacking others down under the cover of anonymity. Maybe Simon should look a little closer to home if he wants to do a little finger-wagging.
Great job DDB finally a natural simple theme for Oz
Took 2 years to think of it…. and New Zealand under 24 hours to better it.
Simon,
Thank you for your frank admission. Finally you have fessed up to having no qualifications other than being a ‘consumer’. Presumably just like those other ‘consumers’ who populate all those focus groups i’m forced to view, or the taxi driver who drove me home last night, he was a ‘consumer’. So is my mum. Hey, why am i spending $1.50 on the Australian when i can get so many ‘consumers’ opinions free?
Ooh… he’s got you there, Simon. What are you gonna do about it?
Simon,
A previous blogger raised a killer point: it might be dangerous, it might require some real detective work, not to say considerable courage to report the back story on what goes on behind the scenes, but it’d make the Marketing page of The Australian (do you even have one any more? I gave up ages ago.) compulsory reading for anybody interested in the business. And, I suspect, draw in a whole new audience.
Frankly, the coverage of advertising in the mainstream media is so cringeingly unsophisticated, it’s no wonder we’re regarded as a joke by the great unwashed, that their understanding of what we do is so pig-ignorant, and that whenever the media wants an industry spokesperson they turn to ‘Ad Guru Siimon Reynolds’ or ‘Ad Guru John Singleton’, or ‘Ad Guru Rob Begiovane’.
As an astute journo for the Australian, who digs deep into the wonderful world of advertising, you will know that on this forum, if the campaign is great it will be applauded and if it is below the yellow line, it will be bagged without mercy.
Make no mistake, the adverting community is embarrassed on behalf of their industry over this effort..
It is a case of DDBusted and ATCrippled.
The Minister for tourism, Mr Ferguson is so wrong when he says that the ATC have got it right this time.
And so are you.
You have already gone so far as to say that the theme is boring and dull … what’s with the fence sitting in the rest of your evaluations?
Cut no slack for this piss poor effort Mr. Canning.
This is not a sleeper. It is dead.
Simon says “Leave me alone”
Anoyn with the cap!
Gee, I just dunno. I guess you guys win. S’pose I’ll just have to go out and consume something and maybe get a taxi license.
Simon, you’ve lost your bet already.
Interview your owners to see what they think of Australia. Easy column space.
Sorry Simon, but that “I’m a consumer” line was about the worst thing you could have said to defend your position. Not very strategically sound and weak in execution.
Simon says Consume.
Simon
You’re entitled to an opinion as much as anyone. But please stop with the anti-anon comment postulating.
Journos make a living off anon comments. Sometimes a trade journo’s agency or media contacts have deliberately embarked on a campaign to make you guys their mouthpiece in the press. And whilst you might think you’re smart enough to know when people are trying to use you, you’re not that smart you can pick them all.
Often a trade journo’s stories, based on anon comments, without any basis in truth, have caused considerable and undeserved problems for agencies and individuals. And when questioned about the veracity of their comments trade journo’s have always resorted to “You know I can’t tell you that”. I know, because that’s what many of them have said to me, when they’ve suddenly and miraculously started to parrot the scurrilous rubbish a well-known agency agitator had spread about me and my agency.
So comment as much as you like, but save us your sermons on anonymity, because you’ve lived off anonymity for years.
ANON
Anonymous comments on blogs are no different than anonymous comments made by talk back callers on the radio every day, or letters to the editor in a newspaper. Unless the talk back callers (hello, it’s John on the line) or letter writers (signed, N. Smith, Newcastle) are well known, they are essentially anonymous.
There’s Nothing Like Newcastle…
The T&C stink
Just by entering the competition (not winning) you are assigning all rights to the image you are submitting and liable for any unreleased talent, locations, brands and products in the shot. To find that out, takes some reading to find.
Competitions that fairly reward the photographers and enthusiasts for the end use of their (winning) images are fine, but competitions that shamelessly grab the rights of all entered images via the small print of the Terms and Conditions is just wrong, unfair and un-Australian.
Beware of this one.
0. By entering the Promotion, Eligible Entrants represent and warrant that:
(a) their entry is original and they own the entry and have the right to assign or license copyright ownership and other intellectual property rights in the entry to the Promoter;
(b) their entry does not violate the privacy rights, copyright, contract rights or other rights (including but not limited to intellectual property rights) of any person, corporation or entity;
(c) their entry does not contain content, or their conduct in creating the content, was not illegal, contrary to any laws, indecent, obscene, threatening, discriminatory, harassing to any person, in breach of any confidence, defamatory, libellous, offensive or objectionable;
(d) if the entry in any way includes third parties, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, or third party property, they have obtained the required consents and releases from those third parties and/or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (or third party property owners) to include them in their entry;
(e) if the entry in any way includes images of locations that require permission, permits or releases to be obtained for the commercial use of the image (including images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sacred sites), they have obtained the required consents and releases from the appropriate owners/authorities; and
(f) if the entry in any way includes third parties under the age of 18 years, they have obtained the required consents and releases from the parents or legal guardians (as applicable) of those third parties or the third party property owners to include them in their entry.
11. By entering the Promotion, Eligible Entrants absolutely and unconditionally assign (and agree to use their best endeavours to procure any relevant third parties to absolutely and unconditionally assign) to the Promoter all right, title and interest in all intellectual property rights in their entry, including ownership of intellectual property rights in any photograph that forms part of an entry.
12. By entering the Promotion, Eligible Entrants acknowledge that their entry may be used by the Promoter, the Promoter’s related entities, agencies engaged by the Promoter, or any other third party nominated by the Promoter, for the Promoter’s current and future promotional and marketing purposes without further reference or compensation to them. Eligible Entrants unconditionally and irrevocably:
(a) consent to any act or omission that would otherwise infringe any of their moral rights in their entry (as defined in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)) and present and future rights of a similar nature conferred by statute anywhere in the world whether occurring before or after this consent is given (Moral Rights); and
(b) waive all Moral Rights in their entry that arise outside Australia.
45. Entrants agree and acknowledge that all entries and any intellectual property rights subsisting in their entries become and remain the property of the Promoter.
Thankyou 12:23 my thoughts exactly. To hear Simon complaining about anonymous comments is laughable.
Proudly anonymous.
Poor creative idea, client would be devastated that’s all they’ve got to offer. Time to move on I think …
You know what 12:23, I think that’s a pretty fair comment. It wasn’t mean to be a sermon, just a comment on anon comments. But it clearly came across as such and you are quite right.
Geez Simon, are you still around?
I thought you would have better things to do?
Simon
You still don’t seem to get it.
You live off comments you invariably describe as ‘industry sources’, ‘senior agency figures’ etc etc. Many times these comments are nothing more than re-hashed, baseless gossip, often peddled by people with nothing better to do than cause trouble.
So, please do us a favour keep your anon thoughts to yourself.
PROUDLY ANON
12.02 … thanks for pointing that out … Kevin and his mates want all who have a crack at Branding Australia to sign over copyright too.
Arse holes.
G’day Guys
Enjoyed reading the comments about TA’s new campaign. Think some of you are being a bit tough on Simon.. at least he should be given some credit in this instance as he personalized his post…
Now regarding his comments:
“Yes, the tagline is safe, even dull. But this is not a campaign anchored in in a 30-sec TVC or an in your face viral which is meant to grab media column inches and create website hits. It’s not a sugar-coated caffeine hit. When the punters see how it works online, I reckon they will buy into it, and so will the folks overseas.”
Agree 100% with Simons comments – as a Group of Oztype folks overseas we have already bought into the Campaign and currently are in the process of seeing how we can use it as a springboard and take it from a safe, ‘dull’ base to a space that is a compelling inspiration for long haul travelers to want to put Oz into their bucket list as a destination….
Guess wot…in three days we have dunnit – well at least started the process 🙂
And to the ‘Anon’ that believes that nobody would want to go to Oz – you’re talking real BS mate. We’re sitting here in a market (USA) where surveys have shown that Oz is #1 on the list of Dream Destinations for a vacation …
A P.S. On the point about inspiring potential travelers to want to vacation in OZ…
Some unprompted comments that came in to us from a member of our group whose client has just returned from Oz:
There’s nothing like….. a satisfied client helping to spread the word…
“Hi J……,
The trip was absolutely fantastic! I loved Australia and every aspect of the trip was handled beautifully. C.. and I were most impressed. We were very thankful for the lovely fruit and cheese platter awaiting us at the Sebel Reef House as we were famished from our flights. And we had a limo take us to the airport when we were leaving which was a real treat! The other guests were wondering if stars were staying at the resort:)
Both activities at Uluru were amazing- the sunset dinner and camel sunrise tour.
I loved Sydney and would have liked another day there but of course there was no time. The blue mountain tour was great.
The Echinda walkabout tour was fantastic! The first day it was C…, myself and 2 others and then the remainder of the tour it was just c….. and me! We had this wonderful tourguide to ourselves . We did the ocean road and rainforest and stayed in the most fabulous bed and breakfast overlooking the ocean on a farm.
Melbourne was nice- good food and shopping . Lots closed due to good Friday , but we went to St kildas and walked around and had a great time.
All and all you did a fabulous job and c… and I will be recommending you to others who want to travel to Australia .
Thanks so much.
M….
Ahhhh…. there’s nothing like.. a little praise after the hard yakka put into planning has been well done….
Australia you’re standing in it. The blood of all the wildlife you’ve ignorantly wiped out.
Is this ad supposed to show that aussies don’t have a solid grasp of the English language? It’s nowhere like Australia not nothing like, which leads me to the point that why is it that most aussies say “yeah, there is a good amount of people going to the show” instead of “there are”
Make way aussies and let us poms do the big clients stuff for you.