In late 2019 and early 2020, Australia was ravaged by bushfires. Lives were lost, local economies decimated, and a cloud of fear engulfed the country as a whole. Footage of the devastating fires was broadcast around the world, portraying Australia as unsafe and frightening, all at the height of the massive summer tourism window.

Our brief was to overcome this negative perception and show the world that despite the circumstances, Australia was open for business. We needed to communicate that we were welcoming tourists, and it was safe to travel to Australia.

Our objective was to drive awareness that Australia was open to the world, and open for business/tourism.

We needed to find a media channel to talk to the world urgently and cost efficiently. We also needed to be authentic and believable. The Australian Open was the perfect platform as it provided us with the reach through broadcast and also genuine ambassadors via our tennis players. Although The Australian Open is a two-week tennis tournament, we only changed the name in the final week.

We implemented the name change on the courts, signage, outdoor, website, app, tickets, broadcast graphics, pretty much everywhere where the AO logo was. We also needed advocacy and the local and international tennis players and celebrities were able to prove that Australia was open through real time experiences at famous tourist destinations. Our target audience was two-fold a) the 900 million daily eyeballs from global viewership and b) the ticket holders and fans who packed Melbourne Park.

We launched the campaign when the world was watching -- just before the first Women’s Semi Final with an on-court media event. The event featured a message from Chris Hemsworth, broadcast to those in the stadium and around the world. From there, we switched over all of the Australia is Open branding. From on-court at Rod Laver Arena (the main stadium showcourt); stadium signage; on-site hoardings across Melbourne Park; integration with the host broadcaster (Channel 9) and ticketing partner (Ticketmaster); as well as the creation of an online presence on social media, on the tournament’s website, and via eDMs sent to the existing database. The campaign ran for the remaining duration of the tournament, through to the finals and trophy ceremonies.

After launching Australia is Open, our message was on-screen for 22% of the entire broadcast. This message was broadcast to 215 countries and territories, and was seen in over 900 million homes a day.