Don’t get Louise started on white ants. As far as she is concerned they are a bigger problem than climate change.
They can gobble their way through your house without you knowing a thing about it. You see, unlike the rest of us they are happy to work in the dark. They eat the wood away from inside the wall and you don’t know that you are in real trouble until you push your finger into the wall and it collapses.
And they will do anything to get to timber of any kind. Charlie has had a small and precious collection of old wines which includes several bottles of Grange. He was devastated when he found that the white ants had marched into the cellar, past the bluestone walls and got into the wooden boxes that he had protecting the Grange.
That then allowed the moths to feast on the labels.
It was devastating in Charlie’s case as he tried to convince his guests as they sat down to an Indian curry that the anonymous bottle of wine that they were quaffing without due regard, was really a 1989 Grange.
It’s the same with modern day media and marketing. You can keep the public image looking the same for a while, but without all of the backup and support working, someone is going to come along some day stick their finger into your image and find that there is nothing there. It’s just all front.
There are many marketing campaigns where a clever line seems to carry the day but unless it can be supported, it falls by the wayside. This has always been the great problem of tourism campaigns. The tourism industry of any country is vital but in Australia it is critical. We rely on it heavily and with a world wide economic slow down, it is paramount that it is working properly.
The global financial crisis has caused tourism around the world to fall by 7% but Australian tourism has only declined 1%.
Tourism is critical for our economy and it alson contributes significantly to social cohesion through the jobs for young people and the opportunity for economic independence and cultural understanding of our indigenous communities.
Tourism Australia has been very clever. They committed a massive sum to promote Baz Luhrmann’s epic to overseas audiences. I think they got their money’s worth. Globally, 4 billion people read press articles or saw TV items about Australia as a destination and that is a staggering 60% of the world’s population of 6.8 million.
Tourism Australia’s research found that people who saw the film were 22% more likely to plan a trip to Australia. And its interesting to note that Australia’s most expensive film at $197 million is now Australia’s third highest box office generator behind Crocodile Dundee and Babe.
The film was considered a disappointment in America but it still opened at number five on the box office chart and was number one in Spain, France and Germany. The Brits had it number three.
Now we need to follow it up with a campaign that will last and portrait us as we wish to be seen around the world. The ad agency charged with the job is DDB Needham and it’s a huge responsibility to make it work while keeping all the stakeholders happy. They have had time to consider the matter and there is good reason to be confident that they can do the job. They are a pretty good agency that has had a lot of success recently.
We need it to work and this nation of knockers has no reason to white ant them!
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