TWICM 193: How Tourism Australia Became One of the World’s Strongest Brands

Tourism marketing often gets reduced to beautiful beaches, drone shots and generic aspiration. Susan Coghill has spent years proving that isn’t enough.

In this episode of That’s What I Call Marketing, Conor sits down with the CMO of Tourism Australia to explore how one of the world’s most recognisable destination brands thinks about salience, creativity, distinctive assets and long-term brand building in an increasingly competitive global market.

Susan shares the story behind Tourism Australia’s hugely successful “Come and Say G’Day” platform, why Ruby the Kangaroo became such a powerful brand asset, and how the organisation balances consistency with freshness across markets including the US, UK and China.

The conversation also explores Susan’s fascinating career journey from working at Apple during the “Think Different” era, including delivering creative work directly to Steve Jobs in Hawaii, through to leading one of the most admired tourism brands in the world.

Along the way, they discuss:

• Why Australian marketers consistently punch above their weight globally
• The role of salience and mental availability in destination marketing
• Why tourism brands often fall into category sameness
• The importance of distinctive assets like Ruby the Kangaroo
• How Tourism Australia approaches talent partnerships with figures like Nigella Lawson and Robert Irwin
• What modern tourism marketing can learn from entertainment and social media
• How AI discoverability is changing brand strategy and search behaviour
• Why consistency compounds in marketing

This is a conversation about much more than tourism. It is really about how brands stay memorable in a crowded world.

07:40 – Working during Apple’s “Think Different” era & meeting Steve Jobs

14:05 – Moving from agency life to brand side

16:20 – Why Tourism Australia is “the best job in the world”

18:00 – Why Australian marketers punch above their weight

20:15 – Escaping tourism marketing clichés

22:10 – Building the “Come and Say G’Day” platform

24:45 – Talent strategy, Robert Irwin and Nigella Lawson

29:30 – How Tourism Australia thinks about salience and consideration

32:10 – Competing without the biggest budget

35:00 – Social media, TikTok and destination storytelling

38:20 – The creation of Ruby the Kangaroo

42:40 – AI discoverability and the future of search

45:20 – Why tourism marketing matters economically and culturally

A huge thank you to our partners at Tracksuit for supporting the podcast.

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That’s What I Call Marketing

That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.

Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.

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