Tourism Australia: Time to get it right.

Australia is a country that is always selling its wears; whether it be natural resources of coal, bottles of award winning wine, our natural wonders of the world or our amazing designers, artist, actors, directors, event planners and choreographers (ahem London Olympics 2012) We are always looking for a way to make our great country the envy of the world.

The latest trick up the sleeve is to combine the struggling and off the pace Australian Tourism agency with the entrepreneurial prowess of Virgin Australia (hello Richard Branson and your many, many friends in high places) With this blossoming friendship comes the bulging price tag of $6 million over 3 years. So what will this friendship and dollars actually get us?

• A potential of 10 offshore key markets with a focus on the United States of America and other countries like: New Zealand, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and Singapore.
• Alliances with following: Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Delta Airlines and Etihad Airways. These airlines fly into every country we are targeting, making the connection of inbound flights a non-issue.

But what seems to tug at my heart strings is the lack of Qantas involvement, although it says Virgin Australia, Qantas is the airline of Australia and that Kangaroo is an instant point of reference. Of recent however, Qantas has been less than patriotic and their public reputation is in tatters with their recent union tiffs and increase of off shore jobs, Virgin Australia, may be the smarter, more reliable and widely accepted means of promotion and partnership. 

Now back to business, there will be a combination of traditional and digital media platforms, if utilised efficiently and effectively this will make for an interesting campaign strategy. There will also be the use of event and sponsorship activities that will include the Australian Tourism Agency campaign message "There's nothing like Australia". Indeed there is no place like Australia and for those of us that are well travelled we know this full and well, however what it seems our promotional efforts in the past have lacked is that ability to portray to the great wide world that Australia is an incredibly unique, diverse and thoroughly awe inspiring land. Fingers crossed this campaign will not tag us as chain dragging, ill-spoken country men, screaming at potential tourist "where the bloody hell are you?". We have become a much more sophisticated bunch since our early settlement days and we were quite repelled by the campaign, despite our own knowledge that we are nothing like that and have much more to offer than beaches and bikinis.

I intend to keep on pulse with this campaign to see what we treasures we can pull of the ever elusive kangaroo pouch. Please don't let us down...again.

Watch this space people!

Hip Hop is at the Moscato stop

We are all aware of the power celebrity has on branding and product sales, but here is a dime a dozen example. Moscato, the sweet dessert wine that is enjoyed by many all over the world for a looong time. But lone behold the Hip Hip world has caught onto the rest of the world and decided: I am going to rap about it, drink ridiculous amounts of it and flash the bottles all over my music videos, at my birthday, in the club, oh hell I'll just get my entourage to carry a cooler full of it.

Hip Hop has become huge with more artist touring Australia and our very own hip hop festival, but the question remains: Do they have any influence on our purchasing habits? Yessir! It appears that we will drink what they drink, when they drink it, because they inadvertently or not so inadvertently tell us to.

This is no new finding, no no, we having been listening to them since the days when Jay Z had 99 problems and bitch ain't one, Tupac was all about a gangsta party with Snoop on the West Coast and Biggie was hypnotising girls with his flashy ways on the East Coast, we have been following their drinking habits with a funnel and a pimp cup.

It appears that not only do we dress like them, talk like them, walk like them and attempt to imitate their "swag" without fulling understanding what in gods name it means, we are also drinking like them. Moscato has seen a massive boost in sales from 2009 to 2011 of approx $300 million, that's sweeter than a chocolate coin covered in gold. And that is just in America, who until recently were not big wine drinkers. However, it is well known that Australians love drinking wine and that a tough day at work is enough to require a bottle of wine to be opened, given their short shelf life, wholly consumed. What impact did this sudden liking from hip hop artists have on the Australian wine industry, lets see...

• Yellow Tail Moscato is predicted to sell over 0.5 million cases this year, that is just one brand
• Moscato sales jumped 87% from 2009-2011
• Moscato bottles under $7 had 800% growth.

Now I imagine that the rich and famous wouldn't drink the $7 bottles, but the lover of hip-hop, Drake and Kanye will easily purchase multiple $7 bottles on top of the already well established Moscato drinkers. Making for a sweet penny in the pockets of wine makers.

Now I'm not saying that every body that listens to Hip Hop is drinking Moscato, but you have to admit we sure are an impressionable bunch.

In the wise words of Drake: 

"It's a celebration, clap clap bravo / lobster and shrimp and a glass of Moscato"