Old Mate returns to show his mates his city in SATC’s follow-up spot via TBWA\Adelaide

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UPDATED TO INCLUDE NEW SPOT: The now famous ‘Old Mate’ returned to Aussie TV screens last week in a tongue-in-cheek teaser advert where he and his mates swag through Adelaide airport ready for their South Australia trip.

 

The full 30 second advert (above) aired during the AFL Grand Final. In the spot Old Mate shows off his favourite new city to his mates, with the trio going on a range of South Australian adventures including driving across Sellicks beach, flying over d’Arenberg Cube and even dabbling in Adelaide’s laneway nightlife. Now his mates have the regret of not having come to Adelaide sooner.

A few weeks ago, the South Australian Tourism Commission and TBWA\Melbourne launched a new TVC featuring ‘Old Mate’, which consequently went viral. The sequel advert is going live today in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in the lead up to the two biggest TV events of the year – the AFL and NRL Grand Finals.

To recap, the first tongue-in-cheek advert tells the story of ‘Old Mate’ who put off coming to Adelaide and South Australia for too long, only visited when he was too old and then regretted it. This stirred up debate across the country and Tourism Tasmania even waded in this week, creating a parody ad in response.

Market research indicates that while Adelaide is a rising destination, there are still many people who have put off coming to Adelaide and South Australia to “one day”, or its “on the bucket list”.

Following the phenomenal amount of debate in media and on social, Old Mate is back, and he’s brought his mates. The focus of the sequel advert going live today is Old Mate now showing off Adelaide – ‘his city’, to his mates. Now it is his mates who have the regret of not having come to Adelaide sooner, but they are consoled by seeing their Mate revelling in his new favourite city.

The new advert also features highlights from across South Australia including: d’Arenberg Cube, Sellicks beach, Adelaide’s city laneways and urban beaches.

The 15 second spot has been released today with the 30 second spot to be released this Saturday.

The Old Mate campaign to date has generated immense publicity. To date there have been over 662 articles, reaching 10.59 million Australians. The highest 2 days of domestic web traffic to southaustralia.com were also recorded on the weekend of the 7-8 September.

With great growth in domestic visitation to South Australia over the past few years (to March ’19, expenditure by interstate visitors grew 23% year on year), the mission is to continue this momentum and encourage those who haven’t been to Adelaide and South Australia yet, to come down and see for themselves.

Old Mate returns to show his mates his city in SATC’s follow-up spot via TBWA\Adelaide