Ruby was in a box on a shelf looking across the room at a poster of Australia, dreaming of getting out and seeing for herself.
She was among other Australian souvenirs in a shop when Louie, a toy unicorn, was placed next to her.
A soon to be released short film will tell the backstory of Ruby, the animated souvenir kangaroo, Australia’s new brand ambassador, voiced by actress Rose Byrne.
Tourism Australia CMO Susan Coghill told AdNews: “There's some emu statues there that are voiced by Hamish and Andy that are very funny.
“The shop assistant places Louie on the shelf next to Ruby and you've got this little unicorn who's this fish out of water.
“These two form a bond, a friendship. They escape the gift shop and they go exploring around Australia.”
Toy unicorn Louie, with the voice of actor William Arnett from Arrested Development, is the wide-eyed tourist.
“Louie is her sidekick,” says Cogill. “Louie represents the international traveller.
“We looked at whether the storyline should just be Ruby taking us on a journey around Australia.
“But putting her with somebody… that's a human desire to see social connection, see interplay between people. Having characters with a relationship that interact, have dialogue, have knowing glances, is part of what is so compelling.
“Just go back to a simple storyline in the John Lewis Christmas ad, with Monty the penguin that looks real and ultimately turns out to be a Christmas toy under the tree.
“There's a universality to characters whether they are a child or an animal or animated characters. People get invested.
“Having that representation of the international traveller was important with Ruby representing Australia, being warm, welcoming and creating that mateship was really important.”
The music is a reimagining of Men at Work’s Land Down Under by a group called Kings of Stingray, a young band out of East Arnhem Land. They sing in both English and their own indigenous language.
“This was part of the brief to the agency (M&C Saatchi),” says Coghill. “It wasn't necessary to use Down Under, but how do you pull some nostalgic themes through this in an uncertain world, harkening back to a point-in-time when people maybe perceive better or happier times?"
The campaign formula
“We've got warm and welcoming recognisable Australian talent building out these brand characters,” she says.
“We love that it gives us some longevity and flexibility. Ideally, we'll imbue these characters, with meaning and affection that we can use over time.”
And some of the longest running and effective campaigns around the world -- such as M&Ms, Louie the Fly, Compare the market meerkats -- are brought back time and again.
“These characters are ownable, they are adaptable into different settings,” says Coghill. “If we pivoted to an execution for China in a year or two, we could evolve her story and her suite of buddies to travel the country with.
“We didn't brief the agency to come up with a brand new character but when they came back with this idea, we did a bit of research and there's a lot of marketing science around the power of branded characters.
“And pulling things through that were popular back then is a tried and true technique. And Down Under is such a wonderful song. It's loved around the world. It's upbeat. But of course, we wanted to put a more modern spin on it.”
Coghill says Australian tourism advertising needs to be grounded in the great Australian locations, the people and experiences.
“We wanted to lift our story just above a montage of different places,” she says. “For us right now, when the world is more competitive we need to be more distinctive, more uniquely Australian, we wanted to find a device that would work for us across channels and get that multiplier effect.”
In the previous big campaigns, Tourism Australia did a fake movie trailer with Dundee and a music video with mate song.
“We know it's harder and harder to get consumer media coverage around just a campaign,” she says.
“This time we've created a short film that will tell the backstory, the origin story, for Ruby, and how she meets Louie and then the adventure that they go on around Australia.
“And not only do we hope that that will help people fall in love with her. But it's a great platform for driving PR in our key markets around the world.”
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