UPDATED TO INCLUDE FILM: Tourism Australia invites the world to ‘Come and Say G’day’ in global campaign via M&C Saatchi, Sydney
UPDATED TO INCLUDE FILM – Tourism Australia is launching the next instalment of its global ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ brand platform today via agency M&C Saatchi, Sydney, with ‘Come and Say G’day’, a new multi-market, mass awareness campaign inviting international travellers to plan and book an unforgettable Australian holiday.
The campaign introduces the world to new Brand Ambassador, Ruby, a souvenir kangaroo who is brought to life with CGI animation and is unmistakably Australian. Ruby, voiced by Australian actress and Tourism Australia’s Global Ambassador, Rose Byrne, was unveiled earlier this month as she hopped across billboards around the world in anticipation for the launch.
Central to the campaign is G’day, a live-action short film directed by acclaimed Australian director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) and produced by FINCH, which aims to capture the world’s imagination with a global publicity and paid media launch strategy that mirrors a major film release. G’day the short film follows the unlikely friendship of Ruby and Louie, a toy unicorn voiced by actor Will Arnett who is a symbolic representation of an international traveller, on an incredible adventure around Australia.
Alongside other Australian icons, from destinations and experiences, to talent and music, Ruby will appear across a range of new campaign assets including TVCs (60’, 30’ and 15’), print, social and digital creative elements, including 3D billboards and high-impact Out of Home (OOH) advertising placements, in a channel mix that has been optimised towards driving attention, engagement, and awareness of the campaign across 15 key markets. Initial testing of the commerical1, which predicts its effectiveness, was overwhelmingly positive across Tourism Australia’s key markets.
The campaign introduces the world to new Brand Ambassador, Ruby, a souvenir kangaroo who is brought to life with CGI animation and is unmistakably Australian. Ruby, voiced by Australian actress and Tourism Australia’s Global Ambassador, Rose Byrne, was unveiled earlier this month as she hopped across billboards around the world in anticipation for the launch.
Central to the campaign is G’day, a live-action short film directed by acclaimed Australian director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) and produced by FINCH, which aims to capture the world’s imagination with a global publicity and paid media launch strategy that mirrors a major film release. G’day the short film follows the unlikely friendship of Ruby and Louie, a toy unicorn voiced by actor Will Arnett who is a symbolic representation of an international traveller, on an incredible adventure around Australia.
Alongside other Australian icons, from destinations and experiences, to talent and music, Ruby will appear across a range of new campaign assets including TVCs (60’, 30’ and 15’), print, social and digital creative elements, including 3D billboards and high-impact Out of Home (OOH) advertising placements, in a channel mix that has been optimised towards driving attention, engagement, and awareness of the campaign across 15 key markets. Initial testing of the commerical1, which predicts its effectiveness, was overwhelmingly positive across Tourism Australia’s key markets.
Says Tourism Australia Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison: “Come and Say G’day is unashamedly and unmistakably Australian. After a challenging time around the world, our uplifting and joyful campaign will stand out in what is a highly competitive international tourism market.”
Tourism Australia’s Chief Marketing Officer, Susan Coghill said Ruby was both a joyful way to showcase the warm and welcoming nature of Australia, and to instantly connect with international audiences, with research showing that the kangaroo is Australia’s most recognisable icon and a clear representation of the country.
“The use of an animated character, such as Ruby, was a deliberate move that aims to cut through the clutter of destination marketing internationally. Ruby is a versatile fluent brand device that can live across all platforms and channels,” Ms Coghill said.
“In tourism advertising misattribution of destinations is extraordinarily high and the use of famous and recognisable Australian icons, such as a kangaroo, Uluru, Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef throughout the campaign ensures our assets are undeniably Australian. It reinforces existing memory structures with consumers, and reminds them of what they already know and love about Australia.”
Through talent, music and landscapes, Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures feature prominently in the campaign, with multiple Indigenous Australian languages shared with audiences. Notably, a fresh new cover of the classic Aussie song ‘Down Under’ was produced in collaboration with Men At Work’s Colin Hay for the campaign.
Ms Harrison, concluded: “Another hero of the campaign is the remake of the Australian classic song Down Under by up-and-coming Australian band King Stingray, who sing in both English and Yolŋu Matha, an Indigenous language from northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.”
Come and Say G’day will be amplified through partnerships with State Tourism Organisations, key distribution and media partners and airlines including Australia’s flag carrier Qantas.
The campaign was created in collaboration with M&C Saatchi, and supported by Tourism Australia’s global agency village as well as specialised agencies that helped to bring the animation to life.
Says Cam Blackley, Chief Creative Officer at M&C Saatchi Sydney: “Campaigns of this scale and importance rarely come around and we feel blessed to have been entrusted with the creation of another epic that will help rejuvenate the tourism industry. This campaign is purpose built to work for audiences from east to west, above and below the equator and easily flex for cultural nuances and sensitivities.
“Come and Say G’day is full of bucket list moments from the director, to the actors, the characters and iconic locations. It’s been touched by a dedicated team of creative individuals and championed by a client that doesn’t just have a progressive vision for advertising but that also truly loves Australia and understands what it takes to motivate the world to visit.”
The ‘Come and Say G’day’ campaign is the first global campaign from Tourism Australia since 2016. The campaign will roll out across the world from 20 October 2022, with G’day the short film available to view on YouTube and australia.com/gday at 7:00AM (AEDT).
Creative: M&C Saatchi Sydney
Film Director: Michael Gracey
Production Company – Film and TVC: FINCH
Animation Company: Platige
TVC Music Score: King Stingray / Level Two Music
Film Music Score: Jonathan Dreyfus and Amy Andersen, including William Barton, Frank Yamma, the Marliya Gondwana Indigenous Girls Choir and Iwiri Choir
Stills Production Company: Photoplay Photography
Photographer: Mark Clinton
Producer: Ross Colebatch
Media: UM (Global team)
Digital: Digitas
Public Relations: Poem (Global agency) / Ogilvy PR
Social: Apparent
87 Comments
Like it,but where can I watch the film?
It launched in NYC tonight so live to view tomorrow after the TVC launch today
Another fake film? Can’t we just rerun the Dundee one?
Great work – well done to all!
Big fan of Rose and Will.
Ok. Has the right feels but it says film? I’m confused.
I like it, well done!
It got my attention and I imagine it will have mass appeal internationally.
I am really keen to see how this campaign is brought to life, it mentions there is film (i know my kids will love this).
Also Post covid/cost of living crisis/war it’s nice to see something positive & fun.
Pretty much every tool used right there. Celebreties, Celeb Voice overs, Animated characters, big music track, drone shots, CGI, small children. All that’s missing is the experience. NZ will be happy.
Feels like a watered down Dundee
Why have a Polish company animate the characters when there are amazing animation studios in Australia? Not cool, TA.
Presumably cast Will Arnett as comedic relief, then why not write in any funny lines? Surely all these comments by the M&C Saatchi team logging on to pat each other on the back?
Not cool, M+C , Finch and TA.
less $ i’d imagine
Say g’day to Warsaw!
Bet the stuffed toy sales will go through the roof.
Tourists?
Agreed right there.
After a shut down industry the government sends this money offshore.
Shouldn’t have happened. Really disappointing. The work better be good, but it doesn’t look it.
I love the only thing going for Melbs is an alleyway.
Ha ha, what a stupid comment.
Minus the offshore thing.
Why would tourists risk coming to this country after the past 2.5 years?
This campaign is simply embarrassing. Who ever thought, conceived and approved it from the Minister down needs to resign. The ads are purile and do nothing to entice any one to return to Australia to see our over-exposed landmarks such as the Opera House and Uluru. Only a child under 5 would want to hear a back-story about an animal that is a national pest. At least the Kylie Minogue Ads looked and sounded good. And to think what $125 million could have gone to for a really creative campaign? Heart breaking.
I think before you moan and cry “embarrassing!” you should wait for the full picture to develop. I think you should understand the context of making a single narrative that can work anywhere and why choices like animation give flexibility in that regard. We’re most proud that we have had first nations representation from the writers room, story lines, consultation with traditional owners on each country we set foot on, to an in-language piece at Uluru, indigenous choirs and engaged King Stingray to reinterpret an old classic, again ‘in-language’. I just think you need to take a step back and ask yourself what you could do to move us all forward. And to change the narrative.
Thanks, account guy.
Imagine this would have taken a bit
Nothing to sneeze at
This isn’t terrible. And at least it has a lash. What is fascinating to me is it literally used every past campaign line. A lot from the Hoges era. You look like you could use a holiday; There Nothing Like Australia; What are you waiting for?; Come and Say G’day.
Did I miss anything?
I want to like it, but I’m left flat.
This looks, sounds, feels like some soulless, old school,
vanilla from top to tail, animation from the 60’s.
Even the kangaroo is sooooo sweet it’s sickly sweet.
The Opera House etc are postcards.
What really makes Australia different, is Australians.
Cheeky, fun, easy-going, welcoming, don’t take ourselves
too seriously.
We’re Buzz and Woody from Toy Story by Pixar.
What we have here is Cinderella from Disneyland.
Yes! Yes, to bringing back the fun in advertising and travel.
When we all got locked up I hoped we would all be rewarded with jobs from agencies, productions would turn back to regular iteration, and all of us Aussie suppliers would get the chance to feed our families again. To find out you used a Polish company makes me sick to the guts. Sick of doing favours for ad world, sick of believing you’d repay us, and sick of all the tripe you spew from your home office about supporting the Australian production community. I hope you all get dragged across the coals for this.
You seriously thought anyone at an Agency would repay you for a favour? Loyalty like that doesn’t exist anymore, neither do ethics that ship sailed a long long time ago. Sad but true.
Unfortunately I’m not surprised, production companies, post and music houses have been getting constantly shafted for years. But to take the post overseas on this one is a big mistake.
Are these half baked stills from a green screen? Awful.
Come clean, you went to Poland because it was cheap.
The sense of entitlement from Australian producers / directors / animators / artists et all is truly astonishing.
At some point when you decide to awaken from your 80s induced slumber after a long lunch at at Bon Ricardo, you may come to realise all aspect of advertising and media compete against global counterparts.
Welcome to yesterday.
Normally I would disagree with all the parochial whining about using foreign talent. We live in an open market after all, where the best directors, actors and production companies will always, and should be, top of the list.
But with this client I can’t help thinking Aussie tax dollars would have been better spent with a local animation company.
It truly is shocking, the optics of using an oversea VFX company to create the central characters reflects so poorly on the client, tourism Australia. These are taxpayer’s dollars going offshore when we have so many talented agencies here. There should be a commitment on all their future tenders that all work needs to the undertaken on shore by Australian-owned businesses including when outsourced by an agency.
no further comment, your honour.
Every Australian cliche packed into one ad. Nice.
Started watching the full film on YouTube and couldn’t get through more than a minute … So cheesy
Disappointed not more scenery or an Australian Company used.
Looks like a children’s Movie promotion.
Agree with @wake up australia
A brief will have a set budget, and if your studio’s treatment goes way over while someone overseas is under, what do you expect?
And you’re fooling no one when you’re dialing into the Zoom call from a mansion in Sydney’s northern beaches. The good old days are long gone.
Let’s shoot the next TA campaign on a greenscreen in Bollywood.
This work is so poor, it reminds me of the Michael Bay CommBank work from years ago – and compared to this, that particular work was excellent (not).
Strategically, you thought having an American (thing) over here talking with an Australian Wallaby, you’d appeal to the lowest common US denominator? Get the families out here? Maybe you did, but you sure cut out the rest of the world, positioning us as a bunch of morons.
I was there when Matilda paraded around Brisbane’s ANZ stadium at the Comm games in 82. I was embarrassed then. Guess what…
The Griswalds?
Honestly, when I saw this work – I thought it was a turn up – April fools style. I know it’s a difficult client, but this….
I absolutely LOVED IT. So clever. Well done to all involved.
Just Brilliant.
So all gov funded work should only ever use service providers from their own country. Scientific research, infrastructure, technology? C’mon
Can’t understand why you put so much effort into making a fabulous 9 min film and basically ignored the print. It’s simply shocking, badly photographed, badly retouched, woefully art directed and lacking any idea, you had a chance to do so much with it to support the film.
Hard to please everyone. Maybe bring back Ollie, Millie and Syd?
It’s pretty standard animation, I’m sure most local creative studios could have delivered to the same level.
Not commenting on the film. But it’s a shame all we have to offer the world is a bridge, some white tiles on a building, coffee in an alleyway and a rock. I’d like to think there was a bit culture or something else here, guess the Liberal government have successfully shelved it over the past 12 years.
You had me at the voice of.
The print campaign is just awfully executed. This is a conceptual campaign but you booked a tourism photographer. Why? Because you’re that genre specific you didnt consider the output? Could t be assed doing any real art buying at all? Who is going to stand up and call this for what it is? This should be a stand out print offering. You’re going to pay that photographer and their agent year after year rollover for this? Stupidity. Nearly as stupid as using a foreign post house. What a joke! This is tax payers money.
Yes, absolutely tax payers funds should be spent here and not abroad, like they are within other industries. We have the talent here to compete with companies from around the world.
Stuff the naysayers, this is a cracker of a campaign.
I love it. Well done to all involved.
There’s no doubt a local could easily match that quality. That’s not where the money went. A 9-minute animation has so much rendering time that a local house would have cost literally millions more for the same job.
So what do we do as an industry? Don’t make any animations because a local can’t cost it at a competitive price? Hell no. Agencies don’t work that way. Creatives don’t build portfolios that way.
Some of the comments in here are delusional. I’m jealous of this work. It would have been a beast to pull together. Well done M&C.
Epic.
So awful. I don’t even have any words.
Shouldn’t that be ‘a Krakow of a campaign’?
Writing a Tourism Australia ad is the poisoned chalice of Australian advertising.
It doesn’t matter what you do, it will be hated.
We’ve all grimaced when a brief widens the target audience from ’18-45′ why?
Because what appeals to an 18 year old is light-years from what appeals someone in their middle ages.
Now imagine having a demographic that’s 18-75.
Oh, and it’s the whole world.
And it has to appeal to Europe, America and Asia.
All at the same time.
It has to avoid every cultural issue in every country it will be seen in.
It has to crack jokes that make someone in Berlin smile at the same time as someone in Texas or Shanghai.
So no biggie.
The truth is, who we see ourselves is very different from how the world sees us.
Sure, we might imagine that we’re a two minute Nike ad shot by Spike Jonze.
You know, one that will clean up at the shows.
All moody with a cool grade.
But the truth is, we’re an escape.
We’re a place with blue water, blue skies and happy people.
We’re not Trump Rallies, Brexit, Taiwan or Putin’s nuclear threats.
And to get someone to fly for up to 24 hours to get here, we have to be more Disney than Nike.
We’re a place the kids’ll feel safe and welcomed.
Did I work on it, yes. Before I left.
Do I know why the post was overseas? Haven’t got a clue.
But most people would sell their grandmother to work on something this big.
And to they agency that I used to work for, well done.
You had one whole year of holding thousands of moving parts together.
Hopefully a few tourists see it and start to spend some money.
Because for years they haven’t.
As Tom Mac used to say, we need some grown ups in advertising.
Grown ups make stuff like this.
The rest, well, they go to the very YouTube channel where the world will actually watch it and kick off.
So amongst tourists talking about how much they’d love to visit Australia, people from here are making sure they won’t.
Personally, I think it’s fucking great.
But then again, I always wanted it to work.
Well said Andy. This campaign has an extraordinary number of boxes to tick and has done so spectacularly imo. Congratulations on playing your part.
I think it’s bang on! W
I think it’s super clever. We’re not the target audience so it doesn’t matter one iota what the naysayers think. Asia and the US are going to eat it up. Cute animals! Wide open spaces! Places and things they actually recognise but haven’t thought of in a couple years! This campaign will work its socks off, which is the only thing that matters.
I think it’s fucking great too! An almost impossible brief to pull off and you guys did it! Well done to all involved at M&C
This is exactly why people think Aussies are a bit slow.
All you grumps are grumpy. This is a monster task and I genuinely laughed at the film.
Lovely work all around
Holy shit, this is extremely well produced and animated. Top marks to TA, M&C and the partner agencies for making this happen – it is rare in ads that you pull off such a massive undertaking, especially in animation. Wake up critics, your jealously is shining through. The website experience is also pretty cool, which is often the disconnect. Nice work!
Spoken like a true gent. This is lovely piece of film.
I actually watched the whole 9 minutes, it was sweet and heartfelt and funny and entertaining. Wish I made it
Nice work MG!
.Holy shit, this is extremely well produced and animated. Top marks to TA, M&C and the partner agencies for making this happen – it is rare in ads that you pull off such a massive undertaking, especially in animation. Wake up critics, your jealously is shining through. The website experience is also pretty cool, which is often the disconnect. Nice work!
Someone’s got the PR machine running.
What a turnaround.
Overlong and cringe. But enough about Flemming’s comment… (ba-dum-tssshhh)
As a person from overseas who lived in australia for years. This makes me miss it so much. It captures the feeling I had when I first saw the opera house, Uluṟu etc perfectly.
Does he even go here?
Many hands make light work. But some hands are grabby.
I just watched the whole film – it’s really poor. The unicorn / roo thing just doesn’t work & it’s so slow to kick off.
Imagine this: a kangaroo in a box wondering via v/o about the world.
A child – who is a tourist (played by a variety of children to sell to direct markets) picks up Ruby & takes her on Every adventure. Same cutaways – but a human clutching her toy and talking to her. Instead of walking up the steps she could actually watching a performance at the SOH, goes bush tucker hunting at Uluru. Galleries in Melbourne. All the usual stock stuff but with a child – not an incomprehensible toy unicorn who came close to making me hate unicorns. No animation needed. Just a kid, talking to a toy, going on an adventure. Because this – really is a shocker.
The short ads seems better but still peculiar cutaways. And when did you last hear anyone say G’day? Crikey? And why is it only white people and Indigenous Australians?
Stuff the haters. This is a creative triumph.
I’ve got nothing to do with the campaign or client but as a writer I’m jealous as hell that a client paid for a clever and populist if not groundbreaking piece of longform (by today’s advertising standards) narrative film that is amusing, entertaining and cute. Most of the time if we get to conceive a script for 30 seconds of interesting, nice-looking stuff that’s a win. Whoever sold this in deserves a high end slab from all the creatives who would have been beside themselves that they got to make this.
I loved every second of that film
The nine minute film was posted yesterday. Within less than 24 hours if had over 4 million views. But that’s not the important thing: redat th comments on YouTube from REAL people:
Absolutely love this. Awesome campaign!
This is adorable! Makes me immediately want to visit
Loved loved loved this ❤great job by tourism australia!
Makes me pretty damn proud to be Australian watching this. Well done Tourism Australia, you’ve knocked it out of the park with this one =D
If this were a feature-length movie, it would be amazing!
Actually genuinely good.
I love it. I watched twice.
It’s not going to trouble the judges at Cannes, but I live in America and a bunch of locals have told me how much they love it.
Son of Dundee did it all with and idea and mass entertainment appeal. Smashed it at Cannes. And disproves most of the long winded commentary excusing this poor effort written above. As for the Youtube posts…you’re seriously saying that’s our benchmark for success now?!?
With all due respect. Please get an Art – Buyer. Please stop using the big boring 4 photographic production companies over and over. Its tiring watching great print opportunities being wasted. From an ex Art Buyer.
Can I ask, is this a comment about the work or a comment about the little guys missing out? Genuine question, art buyers are a dying breed, so I’ve not really worked closely with one. Do you think that the work would’ve been better? IMHO, the print is lacking craft, but I really don’t wanna criticize it – it’s not bad, and there’s enough adult trolls lurking around.
I don’t comment much here, but this work is dire. Everyone involved is better than this. I cringe. So bad. There has to be a reason.
Well said.
And to all the moaners: I’m bored. Ask yourself. Have you ever managed a project or a budget like this? Doubt it. Bet you’ve never actually sold an idea at this scale. I’d hazard a guess you lost out on this pitch, are envious of a working on a job this huge, or literally have no idea what it takes to get this made. And if I’m wrong, and you have, then your empathy needs a refill.
I think whether or not you like it is kinda by-the-by. Your complaints on the minutiae of “a local creative studios could def deliver this” is so blinkered. Yeah dude, they could – would it be good? Polished? Are they resourced to do it in the (I imagine) stupid timeline restraints? Like – come. on. Your ignorance/lack of experience is showing. For argument’s sake they did go with a local studio, someone like you would jump on here and talk about how the “quality wasn’t good enough” etc etc etc.
I’m just so borrrrred of jealous creatives who bash, rather than those who simply admit their jealousy (@jealouswriter, well said).
Anyway, back to living my life.
this has to be the most boring thing I have ever watched.
Are you commenting on your own comment?
Sounds like you, however nuanced just enough for the reader to think it isn’t you.But you can’t fool me.
Lol. Flattered by the comparison tho!
The new you not as good as the original you.