In 1986, Crocodile Dundee introduced Americans to the land down under. The iconic film put Australia on the map and is one of only a few 1980s classics not to have been rebooted in Hollywood. Until now.

In January of 2018, the iconic Australian franchise returned with Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home. Presented as a buddy comedy, the movie features American Danny McBride as Brian Dundee, the long-lost son of Mick Dundee, and Australian Chris Hemsworth as his sidekick, Wally Jr. The all-Australian supporting cast has an impressive roll call of Hollywood heavyweights, including Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Russell Crowe, Ruby Rose, Liam Hemsworth and Isla Fisher.

Teaser films and a promotional campaign encouraged fans to see the “official movie trailer” during Super Bowl VII. However, on the world’s biggest stage, the truth of the campaign was revealed: it was all an elaborate tourism ad for Australia.

We developed three phases to create a media frenzy, without actually making a film:

I. TEASE

To drive PR before the Super Bowl, we launched Dundee a month out, the way any studio would: a website, social handles, an IMDB page, PR, digital and OOH. We released four teasers through our talents’ social, each designed to arouse more suspicion than the last.

II. REVEAL

Our :60 Super Bowl TVC revealed our involvement to 100M+ viewers. What began as a typical movie trailer slowly unraveled, becoming a flagrant excuse to highlight Australia’s dazzling locations, food and wine.

III. INVITE

When the TVC aired, the campaign flipped from “film” to “tourism,” directing people to Australia.com to explore itineraries via a dedicated campaign marketplace. Importantly, our “Tease” phase wasn’t just for comedy: each teaser built our audience pool that we retargeted with “Why Australia?” content we produced simultaneously, featuring McBride.

By every metric, this is the most successful tourism campaign in Australia’s history.

Our campaign phasing drove the most pregame organic PR and engagement (Amobee), and as a result Dundee became the #1 Most-Viewed Super Bowl Campaign (AdAge/Visible Measures).

Top-of-mind

Dundee generated 14,310 PR mentions with a media reach of 7.7B and an equivalent advertising value of $84.4M (Meltwater). Our teasers reported the highest Ad Recall of any Facebook study EVER in the Entertainment category.

Different

78% of American travelers felt Dundee differentiated Australia as a vacation destination, helping to drive a 50% lift in destination desirability (Campaign Tracking).

Driving Intent

66% of exposed American consumers were more likely to visit, with an 83% increase in intent to book (Campaign Tracking). Australia.com reported an astounding 20% organic lead conversion rate (vs. 2% historical) and 24% paid lead conversion rate (vs. 6% historical), generating over 250,000 leads.

One of the most highly anticipated and talked about movies of 2018 was actually an elaborate tourism campaign for Australia.

Over two weeks in January, Tourism Australia convinced the world that a new Crocodile Dundee film was on the horizon. Under the guise of a franchise reboot, the campaign blatantly showed the best Australia had to offer, before revealing the truth on the world’s biggest stage: The Super Bowl.

This unprecedented campaign transcended the tourism category and rose to the top of Hollywood and pop-culture conversations. It has also sparked a worldwide movement to turn the reboot into a reality.

While Tourism Australia historically spreads investment across the year, to break through we needed to own a single moment—the Super Bowl—to be noticed by our audience: American high-value travelers.

The existing tagline, “There’s Nothing Like Australia,” was designed to differentiate Australia, but prior campaigns simply showed tourism-generic sweeping shots of coastlines and vineyards.

But what makes Australia special isn’t just its physical nature: it’s the nature of its people. Aussies are known for their casual warmth and irreverent sense of humor. No one embodied this better than Paul Hogan in 1986’s Crocodile Dundee. This film was, in essence, a tourism campaign in disguise. A campaign that made Australia (and Australians) feel so desirable to 1980s America, that Australia enjoyed the biggest tourism upswing in its history.

So could we recreate these conditions in a way that didn’t just say “There’s Nothing Like Australia,” but proved it?

Out-of-region travel from the US has grown by 11% in recent years, and yet Australia’s share of US tourism has been stagnant at only 1.3%. Because while the world loves the idea of an Australian holiday (we rank third in the world in desire), the “tyranny of distance” means we struggle to convert that desire to visitation.

With Europe and the Caribbean so close to the US, Tourism Australia’s traditional campaigns promoting our wine and beaches weren’t presenting a compelling enough argument for the extra 10 hours on a plane. Add to that the fact we’re outspent in an industry that spends over $5.6B a year, we simply needed to do something different.

Our tasks were clear and vital: we needed to break Australia out of the tourism sea of sameness in a way that made us A) top-of-mind, B) different and C) drove US intent to book today.