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:
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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