Tourism Australia Bets on Film Over TikTok in Marketing Pivot

Tourism Australia is bucking the industry's turn toward short-form social content, instead anchoring its post-pandemic recovery campaign on a nine-minute film. The strategic choice reflects growing confidence that longer-form storytelling can outperform algorithmic chasing in the specific challenge of destination marketing.

Susan Coghill, laying out the strategy at Cannes in Cairns this week, framed the decision against an economic backdrop few industries can match. Tourism ranks as Australia's second-largest export, underpinning one in twelve jobs nationally and one in eight positions in regional areas like Cairns. The sector—built largely on 350,000 small and mid-sized operators—weathered pandemic disruption and faces pressure to recover international visitation quickly.

Coghill's team began by looking backward. Paul Hogan's 1984 "Wonders Down Under" campaign served as both inspiration and cautionary tale: memorable for its confident presentation of Australian landscapes and character, yet conspicuously silent on the nation's First Nations peoples and multicultural communities. The new campaign, "Come and Say G'Day," was designed to learn from that success while correcting its absences.

Six months of research confirmed what seemed predictable: kangaroos, koalas, the Sydney Opera House, Crocodile Dundee and Uluru ranked highest in international recognition. Rather than treat these as tired clichés, Coghill's team—working with creative agency M&C Saatchi—leveraged them as authentic brand codes, embedding them in a nine-minute narrative that won industry recognition. The film became the centerpiece of a campaign that rejected the velocity of social platforms in favour of depth and representation.

The pivot hints at a broader shift within tourism marketing. While most industries have optimised for algorithmic engagement and short-form content, destination marketing appears to operate by different rules. Convincing someone to invest time and money in travel requires narrative space and credibility signals—qualities that a premium cinematic product can deliver in ways a TikTok cannot.

For industry observers, the approach signals confidence that substance and storytelling still have currency, particularly when targeting audiences undertaking significant investment decisions. As Tourism Australia courts returning international visitors, the choice to move upstream—from chasing trends to building narrative—may prove the more effective lever.