Hey, moviegoers, where the bloody hell are you?
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that 20th Century Fox and the Federal tourism minister have both come out fighting to defend Australia, despite the movie flopping at its US box office opening.
Martin Ferguson defended the decision to pump $40 million of taxpayers’ money into a marketing campaign tied to the film but acknowledged that lower box office audiences might lead to the Australian tourism industry getting “less bang for our dollar”.
He said the strategy by Tourism Australia to “piggyback” on the Baz Luhrmann film was an opportunity not to be missed. His comments came as Fox was forced to publicly back its film after recent figures showed a lacklustre performance in US cinemas.
Studio executives say the film is “holding well” and have even revised revenue projections upwards, despite some savage reviews and a weak US opening.
The Luhrmann ads draw on the movie’s theme of transformation and market Australia as the antidote to the stresses of modern life. They are running in the US and Britain and be shown in 20 more countries.
“If you look at the ads then they have the potential to stand up in their own right as they actually advertise Australia featuring that young indigenous boy Brandon Walters …” Mr Ferguson said.
“It is an independent advertising campaign.” “The issue is whether we could have got a bigger bang for our dollar out of the film Australia but the campaign itself is independent and the ads show that.”
Asked if he thought the tourism marketing campaign would get that boost Mr Ferguson replied, “Time will tell but it is too early to say yet.”
A proper evaluation of the campaign’s effectiveness will be carried out in due course, Mr Ferguson promised. Earlier this year, the national auditor criticised Tourism Australia for failing to check whether the $180 million it tipped into the “Where the Bloody Hell Are You” campaign worked.
That ad’s provocative catchphrase was lost in translation in Japan and offended some people in other markets.
Yesterday, the tourism body said publicity about the movie had “reached” 100 million people, visits to the Australia website by Britons had risen 77 per cent and half a million people had watched the Luhrmann ads online.
A spokeswoman stressed the campaign’s success was not pegged to that of the film, “Ultimately that reach is the icing on the cake.”
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