In a major coup for Tourism Australia internationally renowned writer, producer and director Baz Luhrmann will conceive and produce a
In a major coup for Tourism Australia internationally renowned writer, producer and director Baz Luhrmann will conceive and produce a special international campaign for the group coinciding with the release of his new movie Australia.
Tourism Australia Managing Director Geoff Buckley says the combined weight of the film and this campaign will provide Australia with its most powerful push in decades.
“This is a remarkable, and we think, unique project,” Buckley says.
“Australia’s AUD$85 billion tourism industry is, like many countries, experiencing slower
growth because of rising oil prices and tightening economic conditions around the world.”
Nick Baker, Tourism Australia’s Executive General Manager of Marketing says Australia remains one of the world’s most desired tourist destinations, but converting that desire into reality is becoming harder than ever for many travellers.
“The need to create urgency and fashionability around a country’s ‘brand’ is stronger than ever and even Australia, which has long enjoyed an exceptionally high brand reputation, needs to keep its marketing fresh and compelling,” Baker says.
“There is no better way to do that than to secure the help of one of our most creative and
innovative talents, Baz Luhrmann, his creative partner Catherine Martin and the entire
Bazmark team.
“The themes of romance and adventure, coupled with the power of the Australian land and people to transform, will resonate in the tourism campaign, as it does in the film,” Baker explains.
Luhrmann sys he wasn’t keen on the idea when Tourism Australia approached his group at first because they did not want to confuse the promotion of the film with a tourism campaign.
“The more we talked, the more I realised that we both had the same aims; to celebrate the truly unique and transformative power of this ancient and extraordinary continent,” he says.
“With this in mind, we agreed to put our team into the conception and realisation of a contemporary campaign which, while not aping the film, reflects this singular and attractive truth.”