One of the things I remember most of my study abroad experience with SIT in Australia (which was a nontraditional program focused on Conservation and Natural Resource Management), was something a guest lecturer, Peter Cuming, had said (now, I’m paraphrasing here,this was several years ago): “You best help the cause [the environment], by doing what you do best.” At the time, I remember thinking, “How does that work? What if what you are best at is dancing? How does that help the environment?” A year later I graduated from college with a degree in English Literature–which had been my strongest subject–and (like many English majors before me) thought to myself: “Now what? How exactly am I supposed to help the environment with a degree in literature and a love of Chaucer?”
(more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Case Study: “You best help the cause by doing what you do best”
Monday, August 24th, 2009Baz Luhrmann Invites You Down Under
Friday, June 5th, 2009Wishfully dreaming on this rainy day in Brooklyn, I looked up plane tickets back home to Miami (reasonable, cheap even) and to Thailand–why not? Those, however, were not in my budget. Dismayed by the unlikelihood that I would be arriving in Bangkok this summer, I went to the NY Times to see what they had in the way of cheap travel ideas. Their idea of cheap travel is Australia: “Deals Where Summer is Winter.” Having spent the Spring of 2003 in Australia studying abroad with the School for International Training (SIT), a trans-Pacific flight is not my idea of cheap travel–I remember how much those tickets cost. “But…” I thought, “this is a recession! Anything is possible!”
Exactly. The article points out that “international visitor arrivals [in Australia] were expected to fall by 4.1 percent this year.” So what did Tourism Australia do? They partnered with Aussie director Baz Luhrmann (of Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet fame) for the release of his film Australia.
The country, which relies heavily on tourism, is aggressively marketing its vacation value with a campaign linked to the movie “Australia.” The film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, also produced a weighty tourism video, in which a stressed-out Manhattanite on the verge of a breakup is visited by an Aboriginal youth who magically transports her to Australia. There, in a “walkabout,” she presumably reconnects with herself and her partner.
I am fascinated by this for a couple of reasons. The first of which is that I think Baz Luhrmann is awesome–but that is besides the point. Or is it? Of course it is not besides the point. The whole reason Baz Luhrmann’s name is being thrown around in the NY Times article and on the Tourism Australia website is because his involvement in a national campaign is anything but irrelevant. He brings with him his personal brand, which involves (1) being Australian and (2) being a highly successful director of international box office hits.
The second reason I find this fascinating is how this partnership has used the brand of “Australia” as a movie title and then reconnected it back to the government’s tourism activities. An interesting and audacious marketing move, but also very clever. With a rare opportunity to showcase their country in an epic blockbuster film with A-list Aussie actors, Tourism Australia knew that they would have a large audience whose heart-strings they could pull on and have hopping onto Quantas flights and drinking Tooheys New before you could say, “Crocodile Dundee.”
Thirdly, Tourism Australia did something new. Not so new in the sense that movies are frequently partnering with sponsors to promote products, but new in the sense they took advantage of a one-time market opportunity (the release of “Australia”), partnered with a reknowned expert who added another layer of attraction to their oroduct (Baz Luhrmann), and created a unique platform to link their message with the film (the creation of a film-like commercial).
The moral of the story is: “There’s no business like show-business. ”
Or,
“When times get tough, rely on your celebrity friends with strong–and relevant–personal brands.”