Tourism Australia's Latest ‘Come and Say G’day’ Instalment Stars Robert Irwin, Nigella Lawson, Ruby the Kangaroo

Tourism Australia has launched the next stage of its ‘Come And Say G’day’ campaign, featuring localised spots targeting key international markets and starring the likes of Robert Irwin and Nigella Lawson.

Created by Accenture Song’s Droga5 ANZ, Exit Films, and directed by Stefan Hunt, the campaign features a series of ads each featuring a celebrity with a connection to Australia, rather than pushing one asset with one talent across Tourism Australia’s target markets. 

The US ads feature Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin, the UK is represented by food writer and TV cook Nigella Lawson, actor Yosh Yu flies the flag for China, entrepreneur and social media star Sara Tendulkar will appear in India’s assets, and comedian Abareru-kun is the campaign’s face in Japan.

“Something that we've done in this campaign is put a lot of focus on the characters and storytelling,” Tourism Australia's chief marketing officer Susan Coghill told LBB during an interview at the brand’s Sydney office.

“In tourism marketing, you often have to try and put all aspects of your destination in, and we've certainly done that in the past. The challenge with it, though, is sometimes that comes at the sacrifice of something that can be interesting, compelling storytelling. 

“This time, we really leaned into creating really great characters. We used talent that's recognisable, to make people feel something about Australia.”

In many ways, the second chapter will “remain consistent” with the first chapter, which launched in October 2022 to welcome international travellers back to Australia post-pandemic, and introduced the character of Ruby the Kangaroo.

That campaign was made by former creative agency M+C Saatchi, before Tourism Australia took the account to pitch and appointed Droga5 midway through last year. 

The work builds on the original run of Paul Hogan’s famous ‘Come Say G’day’ ads that ran more than 30 years ago, and in three years, has been effective: consideration for an Australian holiday has increased by 10% in the US, UK, and China; flight searches for Australia are up by 22%; and more first-time arrivals to Australia are from travellers in key markets. Visitor expenditure in the 12 months to March 2025 reached a record $52.6 billion, and the number of international arrivals is expected to reach $11.8 million in 2029. 

Susan said she believes in “the idea of compound creativity and the power of consistency,” adding the team found a way to “move this story along while maintaining the elements that work really hard for us.”

The latest instalment keeps the original’s “warm and welcoming tone of voice” and “active invitation” to visit Australia, with Susan adding the word ‘G'day’ “is another brand code that's so strongly associated with Australia.”

Cuddly brand mascot Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo makes a return, in what Susan said “should be no surprise.”

“Ruby is actually now testing as a strong brand code in our key markets, so she's doing her job. She's in that upper right quadrant of brand codes.”

Despite some similarities with its first post-pandemic run, Susan added the new campaign has “a different execution” and “a very different approach to our storytelling and our talent strategy.”

By choosing a different celebrity face for each market, Susan said the team is hoping to “drive greater earned media value in each of our key markets, and also to make the campaign more relatable for our travellers in those markets. We wanted to put some locally recognisable faces in them.”

The brief was to find somebody with a connection to Australia – like Sara Tendulkar’s childhood trips to Melbourne with her dad, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar; or Nigella Lawson’s long-documented history of her love for Down Under.

In America, on top of his imminent appearance on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, Robert Irwin was recently recruited by Special for Bonds’ debut spots in the US. Susan laughed, “We didn't know he was going to be doing the Bonds campaign. We found out two days before we filmed with him. But what an incredible glow up, right?”

On Thursday, the campaign will roll out in its first market, China, fronted by actor and singer-songwriter Yosh Yu. “I've been told he's the Timothée Chalamet of China,” Susan said.

Joining the campaign in the middle of filming his next big movie, the actor was only available to shoot for two days in Sydney at the start of April.

For the social component of the China execution, Susan said, “We found a really clever solution by having him in his hotel in Sydney.

“He goes through his suitcase and pulls out things saying, ‘Oh, here's the dive mask from when I was at the Great Barrier Reef,’ or ‘Here's my akubra from when I was in Tasmania,’ then we’d put in all that footage.”

In addition to the localised talent, the ad tells a different story in each market, chosen based on research into the key drivers of destination choice.

“In the China execution, there's a love story that comes through in it, and that was driven by some category entry research that we did with [Ehrenberg-Bass Institute professor and brand equity expert] Jenni Romaniuk.

"What bubbled up in that was that for Chinese travelers, one of the things that they will travel for is romance and reconnection. Little insights like that helped the strategy and the creative teams think about how we could make each of these executions relevant in each market.”

Following China, the campaign will roll out in India in late August; the US, UK, Japan, and Germany in September; and South Korea in November.

As well as the TVCs and tentpole campaign activity, a series of social content has also been created for each market. Susan said social is “where people go for inspiration, it's where they're searching” for travel and tourism inspiration and tips.

“We need to think through how campaigns live in it, we need to think through how supporting content lives in it. We're thinking through the role of influencers and content creators as well, but making sure that we can always do things in our own distinct way is really important to us.”

In London, Tourism Australia will host a takeover of iconic outdoor space The Outernet, off Tottenham Court Road. The campaign will be broadcast on four panels outside the building, and an additional four full panels plus the ceiling inside. 

“There's sound that comes with it, so we'll have a four or five minute video. We'll play Nigella's memories from Margaret River, and beautiful green and blue footage from the Margaret River with some of her quotes. We'll hear a little bit of audio from her, then we'll have some somebody else's memories from Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, and Pink Lake. 

“It will be quite immersive, really beautiful. We'll make sure we get a photographer out there taking really great imagery, and then we're going to host a media event with Nigella there.”

Tourism Australia appointed The Monkeys, Accenture Song, and Droga5 last year before the rebranding of The Monkeys as Droga5. 

The final work is very close to the idea Droga5 pitched to win the account. "What I can tell you [is that] this is, interestingly, very close to the pitch work," Susan said.

“It was open tender to everybody, then we culled it down before Christmas [2023] to [a pitch shortlist of] three. We gave people December and January off, because everybody needed a break, and picked it up in February. We gave them a creative brief, which was for this. 

“By the time we brought [Droga5] on, it was July, and we had the core of the idea. It was largely this, and then it was just refining it, testing, production, planning – which is really huge because we film around the country – planning the animation, and getting the right production company and directors on board. 

“It's been well over a year in earnest, and I’m so happy to see it come to fruition.”