Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins is featured in a new initiative by Tourism Australia, aimed at Indian cricket fans during the upcoming Test series against India, starting on November 22 in Perth. The campaign, titled "Howzat for a holiday?", will showcase Australia's tourism highlights alongside brand ambassador Ruby the Kangaroo in various video formats and advertisements across India.
With an expected audience of up to 50 million viewers, the campaign seeks to attract high-potential travellers by highlighting Australia’s attractions beyond the cricket field.
Tourism Australia Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison, said "India has long been a key market for Australian tourism and with arrivals from the country on the rise the Test series between our two nations presents the perfect opportunity to ramp up activity in the market. With a population of more than 1.4 billion people and more Indians looking to travel the potential in the Indian market is endless and we see the upcoming Test series as our chance to get on the front foot and promote our country to a captive TV audience.”
“The Test series will attract enormous TV audiences of up to 50 million across India and tens of millions of those are high yielding travellers who are in the market for an international holiday. While we have their attention firmly on Australia for the cricket this is an unmissable chance to encourage those travellers to visit Australia and see what we have to offer as a holiday destination. The aviation links between India and Australia have never been stronger, the market was one of the first to fully recover after the pandemic and, according to forecasts, the number of Indians travelling to Australia will double 2019 levels by 2028. It will be a tough Test series for India on the field, but we are confident Indian travellers will still want to Come and Say G’day,” Harrison further added.
Tourism Australia Chief Marketing Officer, Susan Coghill, said “The latest special instalment builds on the work the global Come and Say G’day campaign has already achieved since it launched in October 2022. Howzat for a holiday? proves the versatility of our brand ambassador Ruby the Kangaroo, who is once again voiced by the wonderful Rose Byrne. Ruby was at the centre of our global campaign when it launched two years ago and since then she has been central to all of our work including a campaign for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and now cricket.”
Coghill further added, “We are so pleased to have been able to work with the Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins, Rose Byrne and also our new creative agency, Accenture Song, who have helped to create a uniquely Australian campaign that will resonate with audiences in India. This new creative is part of a whole range of activity around the Summer of Cricket. Ahead of the Test series we launched a four-part social media content series with David Warner, we followed that with the launch of Howzat for a holiday? and we will also be hosting a group of Bollywood talent here in Australia. All of this activity will run in India throughout the series to showcase Australia as a holiday destination. This is now a proven formula and it is one we will execute once again with a push into England with localised creative during the Women’s and Men’s Ashes here in Australia next year.”
