Tourism Australia presents “DUNDEE: The Son of a Legend Returns Home:” The movie that was actually a tourism ad.

When Tourism Australia came to us, their previous US campaign efforts were failing to make an impact at any level of the funnel. While Australia has always had strong brand imagery, it wasn’t top of mind and was failing to convert desire to intent and visitation, even as US out-of-region travel grew.

We simply needed to do something different. And, in doing so, present a side of Australia so compelling that it made the 21-hour flight worth it. The answer? Well it laid not only in the nature of this beautiful place but in the warm, casual and irreverent nature of its people.

What better way to prove this to America than with a giant piss-take (Google it) on the biggest media stage on earth: the Super Bowl. We revived the country’s most famous entertainment franchise, Crocodile Dundee, in Hollywood’s era of “peak reboot.” The only twist? Well, we kinda, technically never actually made the movie. Australia sure looked pretty good in the trailers, though.

This campaign marked a step change: by focusing efforts on a powerful, PR-centric idea, we created dramatic efficiencies ($85M of earned value) that allowed a small country to break through on a big stage. In the process, we created the most effective tourism campaign in the country’s history, driving an 11.5% increase in US tourist visa applications versus the prior year and a 30% increase in overnight spend. (And we’re not even halfway done with the booking curve yet!) We’ve also built a huge, qualified audience pool to message down the line and have driven leads to Tourism Australia’s partners at a rate four times faster than ever.

Crocodile Dundee was number two in the US box office in 1986. (You gotta admit, Tom Cruise was pretty hot in Top Gun. That volleyball scene? Yeesh.)

It was a cultural phenomenon in every sense of the word. However, it remained the prevailing symbol of Australia within the US for three decades after it was released.

This was a laser-focused campaign to update that perception—to make Australia top of mind once more but also shift our perception. We mined for insights in the American market. We only spent in the American market. We even cast an American actor, Danny McBride, as the son of Dundee, all to make sure Americans could see themselves coming to Australia.

Focusing on a single market in this way has paid dividends—American High-Value Travelers are now coming in droves (+11.5%), and spending more (+30%).