Got Questions About our New Brand

What has changed?

Queensland, Where Australia Shines is Queensland’s first global tourism brand platform and introduces a new long-term vision for Queensland as a tourism destination. It’s a new way of communicating everything Queensland has to offer our visitors. The new brand creative features a powerful new tagline Queensland, Where Australia Shines and refreshed logo.
Queensland, Where Australia Shines is not just a tagline however - it is a multi-faceted long-term strategy for Queensland’s tourism future. The new brand campaign is the result of a shift in Queensland’s marketing approach focusing on the tourism experience and the consumer’s emotional response rather than Queensland’s attributes. This approach gives Queensland a competitive edge. Four key themes have been developed to promote Queensland’s tourism product experiences - Queensland Lifestyle; Islands and Beaches; Natural Encounters; and Adventures.

What’s does the new brand line mean?

Leveraging off the word Australia, the brand has universal appeal and will enable our tourism industry to develop more
effective marketing activities based on the tourism experiences and our visitors’ emotional response rather than just
Queensland’s attributes.

• The thought and line are born out of something Queensland already owns - a beautiful climate and laid back attitude
• When people are happy, they shine. Their faces radiate the same joy, warmth and love that Queensland does
• Queensland’s unique destinations are all shining examples of what makes Australia great
• We want people to see Queensland as the one place in the world where they’ll get their chance to shine too.

Why the change?

The former brand, Where Else But Queensland, was more than 12 years old and research showed it was time for a change.
Tourism Queensland undertook the process of refreshing the image of our state to remind travellers to come here for the first time, or to come back.

What are the benefits of change?

Queensland, Where Australia Shines is a new way of communicating everything Queensland has to offer our visitors. It will
become the platform for presenting Queensland’s unique tourism attributes using our four key themes - Queensland Lifestyle; Islands and Beaches; Natural Encounters; and Adventure.

What does the new brand platform hope to achieve?

The new brand platform is brilliant in its simplicity and clarity and captures the essence of what sets us apart from other
destinations – a beautiful Australian holiday destination, unforgettable experiences and shining Queenslanders themselves.

The goals of the brand strategy are to

• grow the equity of the Queensland brand;
• grow market share (expenditure and visitation) and

• encourage visitors to travel more widely within the state

Is it just a new tagline and a new TV commercial?

Queensland, Where Australia Shines is not just a tagline, it is a multi-faceted long-term strategy for Queensland’s tourism
future. This strategy will include initiatives such as retail campaigns with key partners offering great deals on Queensland
holidays in television, print, radio publicity, social media, online campaigns and strategic partnerships. Tourism Queensland will also incorporate this new tagline and logo into all its other activities including industry development, workshops, roadshows and all ongoing activities with Tourism Australia.

What did the creative process involve?

• Creative strategy development: Tourism Queensland worked with our creative agency, Clemenger BBDO to develop the creative strategy.  This strategy was underpinned by consumer research and extensive consultation with key stakeholders.
• Creative development and production:  Creative concepts for the new brand were developed and approved for Queensland and our five regional marketing brands. The creative concepts were tested in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne before undertaking the photographic shoot and the creative production of style guides and new websites.

• Preliminary implementation phase:  Key activities in the preliminary implementation phase include a global launch event, a social media campaign, domestic brand and retail campaign and transition to the new look through mediums such as websites, signage, stationery and marketing collateral.

Who are the major creative suppliers who worked on the brand project?

Clemenger BBDO Brisbane tendered and won the contract as leading creative agency on the brand project. Clemenger BBDO
Brisbane managed the overall project but in some areas drew on expertise and resources from other Clemenger offices
throughout Australia and New Zealand. Other major suppliers/companies who contributed to the creative process include:

• Film Headquarters (the film production company)
• The Post Lounge (the post-production company)
• Ben Parkinson Casting (the casting and talent agency)

These three major suppliers are all based in Queensland. For further information on the tender process refer to www.tq.com.au

How do we know the positioning is right?

Tourism Queensland undertook extensive consumer research and industry consultation when developing the unique
positioning of Queensland, Where Australia Shines. This included asking over 6000 Australians their views on holidays and destinations in Queensland in order to find the right
positioning for our state.

How much has been spent on developing the new brand platform?

The creative process is estimated to cost $4.16m over two financial years. This investment includes a range of activities such as:

• a photo and film shoot of over 70 Queensland destinations which generated more than 500 new images and 32 hours of destination footage;
• new marketing collateral;
• a global social media campaign which will launch in coming weeks;
• industry and consumer consultation;
• new online and social media platforms such as the updated Queensland Holidays website and Queensland Facebook page;
• the roll-out of the new brand through Tourism Queensland’s key international markets; and

• the development of regional marketing brands for Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, The Whitsundays and Tropical North Queensland in addition to the Queensland brand.

What’s the difference between the new brand and ‘The Best Job in the World’ and ‘Hey Hey this is Queensland’ campaigns?

‘The Best Job in the World’ and ‘Hey Hey this is Queensland’ were marketing campaigns with specific target markets and timeframes. Queensland, Where Australia Shines is much more than a one-off marketing campaign. Queensland, Where Australia Shines is Queensland’s first global tourism brand platform and introduces a new long-term vision for Queensland as a tourism destination. One of the biggest positives about the new tagline is its versatility – it has potential to be used in many other industries, not just tourism.

What’s the difference between the old and new logos?

Rather than reinvent the iconic ‘Q’ logo which has a high brand recognition in the marketplace, the Queensland logo has been updated to make it more contemporary and signal the start of a new era of tourism marketing in Queensland. The new logo draws inspiration from the brilliance of natural light while the iconic stylised representation of the Queensland sun has been modernised and infused with vibrant colours to present Queensland as positive, outgoing and carefree. 

What are the components of the domestic brand tactical/retail campaign?

To celebrate the launch of Queensland, Where Australia Shines, there will be some great online holiday deals available through www.queenslandholidays.com.au.

What are the components of the global online campaign?

In mid-October Tourism Queensland will launch a social media campaign to spread the awareness of the brand globally. More information on this campaign will be available in coming weeks.

Why are there only five regional marketing brands?

All of Queensland’s regions are covered under the new Queensland brand. Tourism Queensland believes many of the smaller regions will actually receive greater exposure under the new global brand than they did under the 14 regions approach. They will:

• be part of larger campaigns and therefore get greater exposure and return investment
• receive greater PR exposure
• benefit from an increased focus on strategic development and marketing activity based on the four themes
• benefit from an increased focus on converting visitor interest into real bookings, while still selling the benefits of Queensland

The move to a Queensland brand will deliver many practical benefits including more targeted media, satisfying visitor demand, consolidation of financial and human resources and increased exposure for Queensland experiences across the state.

Will the five regional marketing brands replace existing tourism brands?

Tourism Queensland owns the brands however they were developed in partnership with the regions. The five regional marketing brands for Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, The Whitsundays and Tropical North Queensland will replace the existing leisure tourism brands. Other destinations will be captured within the whole-of-state brand.

What's different about the websites and what is the benefit to visitors and the tourism industry?

Earlier this year we conducted research with our key target audiences to ensure their holiday planning needs were being met on www.queenslandholidays.com.au  We took the opportunity to put the site architecture through a “health check” and some areas for improvement were highlighted. As a result, a number of changes have been made.

For visitors:

• Destinations have changed to reflect the regional tourism organisation regions. South East Queensland Country, Western Downs & Central Queensland have been replaced with Toowoomba & Golden West, Southern Downs, Gladstone and Capricorn.
• We have added “interesting” lists to the site.  These lists show the ten most frequently visited events, things to see and do and destinations pages in a “top ten” format. These lists are updated daily.

• Queensland images and video are now available in larger formats, we have maps where relevant, and our user-generated content is displayed via slideshows throughout the site.

What's different about the websites and what is the benefit to visitors and the tourism industry?

For industry:

• There are improvements to the layout of the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) product records. Larger image player, Google map positioning, linkage to consumer reviews and most importantly greater opportunity to generate leads to tourism operators through increased exposure to direct operator call to action.
• Holiday deals listings are integrated across the site, displaying on the whole of state deals page, the destination deals page and the ATDW product record.  This triples the exposure of a holiday deal.
• Tourism Queensland’s social media assets (Twitter, Facebook & YouTube) have been incorporated into the site though a home page interface. In addition, the Facebook “Like this page” button has been enabled across the site, increasing the ability to share this content with friends.

Tourism Queensland’s corporate website has also undergone an update with a new look and easier to navigate pages.

I’m a tourism operator – how can I use the new brand platform?

The new brand platform offers the tourism industry an entirely new creative approach and practical tools to support and improve the industry's ability to market Queensland.

QLD BrandDepot

Tourism Queensland is creating an online resource centre for the new brand creative and campaign marketing tools called the QLD BrandDepot. The QLD BrandDepot provides tools, inspiration and ideas to improve our industry’s ability to market
Queensland. The QLD BrandDepot is a one-stop-spot for accessing, downloading and sharing the latest files, tools and
campaigns for Queensland and its destinations. The QLD BrandDepot will be available from November 2010 at
www.tq.com.au/BrandDepot.  

Image Gallery

In 2010, Tourism Queensland completed a photo and film shoot of over 70 Queensland destinations to support the new brand platform. The new images and footage are available through Tourism Queensland’s online Image Gallery. The Gallery contains the ultimate collection of high resolution Queensland images, capturing a wide array of tourism experiences and showcasing the diversity and splendour of this naturally beautiful state of Australia. Images are available to travel and tourism industry professionals, media and anyone seeking professional images for use in the positive promotion of Queensland. The collection contains approximately 20,000 high resolution images available for instant download. For further information visit http://tq.lookat.me.com.au or contact the Image Gallery coordinator at image.gallery@tq.com.au or +61 7 3535 5489. 

Where can I find out more information on the branding process?

More information can be found in the Launching the Queensland Brand document which can be downloaded from www.tq.com.au/brand.