Tourism ad not meant to be 'beautiful' (2/9)

TOURISM Queensland’s $5 million advertising campaign with the jingle ‘Hey hey we’re Queensland’ has copped its share of criticism as creative agency Clemenger BBDO admits it was never meant to be ‘beautiful’.

The advertisement features four ‘Best Job in the World’ contestants in various locations to a theme song of ‘Hey, hey this is Queensland’, based on the 1960’s hit (theme from) The Monkees.

The problem is that nobody knows who the candidates for the Best Job in the World are.

“Sometimes you have to put beauty and creativity aside to get sales,” says Clemenger BBDO Brisbane account director Heidi Monsour.

“We wanted to sell to a different demographic that was fresh and upbeat – we’re not going to try to make Queensland look as cosmopolitan as Melbourne, or as metropolitan as Sydney. We’re proud to be characters here and we wanted to create that energy.

“People with a creative opinion we’re not so worried about, we’re more concerned with people that want to take a holiday.”

Monsour says the ad has increased bookings from clients and has received positive feedback from Jetstar and Virgin Blue.

“We love it and we’re getting fantastic results. We won’t go out with PR yet ­— we want to get results and then go out and say this is what our goal was to keep clients happy,” she says.

“Our task was to create a retail campaign that would complement the ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign, to sell holidays as opposed to brand awareness.”

Premier Anna Bligh has called the campaign a ‘significant funding injection’ from Tourism Queensland, and will do ‘everything in the government’s power to keep jobs afloat in the tourism sector’.

“It’s fresh and vibrant and shows the variety of experiences on offer here — natural encounters, adventure, islands and beaches and the unbeatable Queensland lifestyle,” says Bligh.

“I can guarantee it will have everyone smiling, tapping their toes and singing along.”

While it pitches to a ‘new generation’, the irony is that many of the target audience would not know the 1966 hit song by a concept band that had their own TV show.

Tourism Queensland must be hoping that a lyric in the original song ‘You never know where we’ll be found’, does not ring true.