MATESONG

CASE STUDY

THE CONTEXT

With Brexit looming, Tourism Australia anticipated a decline in British tourists (who spend $3.3B yearly). Big vacations, especially to a place on the other side of the planet, were simply less of a focus in the context of such extreme uncertainty.

We wanted to remind the Brits of the bond we shared; we are the little brother who has always been there – whether that be in sport, in battle, or providing quality programming like Neighbours.

The more we thought about it, the more it seemed that Brits could really use a mate, a bit of a laugh, and probably a holiday.

THE WORK

We created Matesong – a 3-minute ballad, delivered by Britain’s favourite Aussie, Kylie Minogue.

It was a reminder to the UK of the brotherly relationship between the two countries. A stunning country that would welcome them with open arms.

In the lead-up to the launch of Matesong, we created a series of on-station idents in partnership with ITV that mimicked regular unbranded TV programming.

Out-of-home advertising and an appointment to view in TV guide scheduling, planted the seed of a special Kylie performance.

Then, on Christmas Day, right before the Queen’s speech – when she was expected to talk about the tough year they’d all had – our ballad went live, with digital roadblocks capitalising on dual-screening behaviour; and cross-channel cut-downs during the evening’s Christmas specials.

For the first time ever, one country created a bespoke piece of work to directly talk to another country on a personal level.