The $180 million advertising campaign Tourism Australia launched in 2006, done by M&C Saatchi in Sydney, pretty much failed miserably. I thought it was shit, too.
Now that there's a new campaign with the tag line, "There's Nothing Like Australia", Tourism Australia wants the public to get involved in the marketing of the campaign. We're encouraged to upload photos of what makes Australia so unique, etc. to a website with the allure of winning prizes and cash money. SICK!
But, not even a day in and people have already started making online parodies. It seems that since the "Where The Bloody Hell Are You?" campaign, no slogan is going to be left untouched. The problem, though, is that the 'real' competition to upload photos hasn't even started yet and there's already a tumblr site set up that, frankly, is quite funny. Check it at There's Nothing Like Australia.
With the reach and increased usage of online social media, this kind of stuff has the potential to really damage Tourism Australia's efforts. Any attempt to get everyone on-side is going to result in an Epic Fail of the worst kind (one not even worthy of a YouTube video). The worst thing they can do, I think, is if they follow that all too familiar path Nestle did with Greenpeace by trying to get all litigious. The so-often-referred-to Australian underdog mentality just might kick in and even more people will start supporting those who try to defame the campaign.
The marketers need to keep their wits about them and the lawyers, well, let's hope they don't get too out of touch. Letting some things go might just mean they pass over and the whole campaign isn't sabotaged before it's hardly begun.
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