Australia launched a multimillion-dollar bid this week to rebrand itself as more than a nation of bronzed beach-goers, following a failed campaign deemed too offensive to air in some countries.
Trade Minister Simon Crean said the government would spend Aus$20-million recasting the nation’s image to capture the ”essence of Australia” as a trade, education and investment destination in Asia.
”We are much more than a nation of great people and great places. We have won 10 Nobel Prizes and we are a nation bursting with creativity and ingenuity,” Crean said.
He vowed to avoid a repeat of the controversial ”Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” 2006 tourism campaign, which was originally deemed too offensive to be screened in some countries, and largely failed in Asia.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year described that campaign as a ”rolled gold disaster.”
Attempts to lift tourism on the back of the epic 2008 movie Australia also flopped after the film failed to set the box office alight, with official figures this year showing overseas visitor numbers down 2%.
Australia’s most successful tourism promotion was a 1980s campaign featuring Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan telling tourists he would ”put another shrimp on the barbie” for them.
But Crean said Australia needed a brand that went beyond the familiar beach-goer image and which promoted Australia as a ”clean-energy” food bowl for South-East Asia, a market he said presented huge economic opportunities.
”As these economies grow, and they will be the growth economies of the next decade, their living standards will increase,” Crean said.
”Their demands for energy and for food will increase. But so, too, will their demand for infrastructure and services.
”This is the creative space in which Australia can play.”
He denied the country’s image had been damaged by the previous campaign or recent diplomatic tensions with China.
Claims of racism and exploitation have also plagued Australia in recent months amid a rash of bad publicity in the region relating to violent attacks and education scams targeting Indian students.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit the subcontinent next week in a bid to soothe diplomatic tensions over the issue, which has threatened Australia’s $12,7-billion international education industry.
Todd Sampson, head of major advertising firm Leo Burnett Australia, said the country needed to ”stand for something” in the eyes of the international public.
”You think of Australia and you sort of draw a blank,” Sampson said.
”Beyond koalas, kangaroos and beaches, there’s not much there and that’s the challenge Australia has.”
The government would open applications for the four-year campaign to advertising agencies in the next fortnight, and Crean said he would keep an ”open mind” on the shape the brand would take.
It would be locally released in February, with the international launch to take place next May at Shanghai’s Expo 2010. — Sapa-AFP