🌍️ ⚡️ How Australia's travel ad won the Women's World Cup

A travel marketing campaign that scored more than a few goals

Author

Alex Jeffries
September 03, 2023

How Australia Won The 2023 Women’s World Cup… With Travel Marketing

For anyone who followed the Women’s World Cup, you know that Australia didn’t win. In fact, they didn’t even make it to the final round.

Instead, they lost to England in the semifinals.

Yet for anyone keeping score at home, Australia’s travel marketing team snuck in one final goal… after the buzzer.

While English lads and lasses were celebrating a win in a drizzly, gray country, Australia’s supporters had to suffer on golden, sunny beaches.

So, you tell me — who’s the real winner here 😎? I’d chalk this up to a travel marketing victory for Australia.

This ad wasn’t their first one featuring their kangaroo mascot Ruby (seen relaxing against the ball) and the World Cup - they also created a clever sports highlight-style video that features many of Australia’s stunning destinations.

Don’t have the budget of an entire country at your disposal? Not to worry. Let’s break down three ways travel brands of any size and shape can use this in their marketing.

⚡️ Travel Marketing Tips ⚡️

How to apply Australia’s success to your own travel marketing efforts:

  1. Use What You Have - If you only listened to football fans at bars, a loss in the World Cup would be a bad thing. Take a step back, and you can see how England may have won… but is a victory in rainy ol’ England better than a loss in sunny Australia? Bad news is often a matter of perspective, so think about how you can frame news for different audiences.

  2. Tap Into Current Events - The video that Australia’s tourism team put out over the summer was a great nod to football highlights while also showing off the country’s best assets. How can you use what’s going on in the world to show off your country? For example, we just finished the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Is your destination home to some of the world’s fastest (or slowest) animals? Try a tongue-in-cheek video comparing their speeds to some of the human record holders.

  3. Don’t Be Afraid To Go Cute - When in doubt, go cute. From animated kangaroos to gorilla babies, the cute representatives of our destinations have a way of winning out. Whether it’s just an appreciation post for a newborn animal or redesigning your logo to feature a mascot, there are plenty of ways to incorporate a bit of youthful charm in your promotions.

For a full breakdown of Australia’s “Come and Say G’Day” travel marketing campaign, and this fun addition to it, see our new blog post below.

Thanks for reading this issue of Travel Marketing Sunday, a weekly publication from Passport Creative. Our goal is to bring you the best travel marketing examples from around the globe to inspire your own travel and tourism marketing efforts.

Questions about this campaign? Need help with your own travel brand’s marketing? Reply back and let’s chat!

Sincerely,
Alex