Tourism Australia goes walkabout

Global – Tourism Australia has released its new ad campaign, created by Hollywood director Baz Luhrmann, designed to put the country back at the forefront of world tourism.

The A$50 million “Come Walkabout” campaign, which can be seen here, has two TVCs, one set in New York and one in Shanghai. They are linked to Luhrmann’s upcoming film Australia, which stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

In the ads, stressed out and disconnected executives are visited by an Aboriginal boy who invites them to come walkabout to Australia where they can find their true selves.

The campaign is a major departure from M&C Saatchi’s controversial “Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” work and other previous Tourism Australia campaigns, which focused more on Australia’s larrikin edge and attractions such as its beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

Nick Baker, executive general manager marketing for Tourism Australia, said the campaign was unlike any other tourism campaign.

“It’s cinematic in style, is based on a story with a beginning, middle and end, is sophisticated and highly emotive," he said.

"It is not the traditional slide-show of pretty pictures of places and people. The idea stems from Baz’s film, which tells the story of Nicole Kidman’s character, Lady Sarah Ashley, who has lost her sense of self but who finds adventure, romance and her true self when she comes to Australia.

"We’ve made that core storyline into two short-film-like stories of contemporary people who are stressed and disconnected from their loved ones and their true selves, and who find their centre and their release in Australia,” he said.

The TV, cinema, print and online campaign will run in all of Tourism Australia’s 22 major markets around the world from October until June 2009. The first major work by DDB Australia, which won the account in a hotly contested pitch earlier this year, will follow the Lurhmann campaign.