Wine Australia targets US with spoof Crocodile Dundee trailer during Super Bowl

Wine Australia has partnered with Tourism Australia on a AUS$36 million marketing campaign to help attract tourists to the country and promote Australian wine in the US, that kicked off with an all-star Crocodile Dundee ‘film trailer’ aired during the Super Bowl.

Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride sample Australian wine during the ‘trailer’ for Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home, aired during the Super Bowl

Backed by $1.5m from the Australian Government’s $50 million Export and Regional Wine Support Package, the start of the campaign was signalled with a spoof trailer for a fictional sequel to the popular 1980s comedy Crocodile Dundee (so believable it caused some fans to believe a sequel really was in the pipeline), and features actors including Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride.

The 60-second spoof trailer for Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home, features McBride as the son of Paul Hogan’s character, Crocodile Dundee, arriving in Australia from the US to meet Aussie Chris Hemsworth, and builds to showcase the country’s key tourism hotspots – including a scene in which Hemsworth and McBride drink Australian wine together and praise its quality.

The $36m campaign, supported by Wine Australia and Tourism Australian and backed by the $50m Government support project, amplifies the promotion of Australian wine and wine regions on the world stage and complements the targeted USA marketing campaigns being delivered by Wine Australia to increase awareness of our fine wine offering in the USA under the $50m Package.

“The exciting, one-off $50 million investment is an opportunity for the wine sector to maintain its competitive edge, thinking bigger, bolder and better than ever before,” said Andreas Clark, CEO of Wine Australia. “The work with Tourism Australia is an initiative to help achieve our tourism objective and drive visitors to Australian wine regions. Australia’s wine and food offering has truly evolved since Crocodile Dundee was released over 30 years ago. This campaign puts the spotlight on contemporary Australia and we hope it inspires Americans to discover the beauty and sophistication of our wine regions and try some exceptional Australian wine.

“The Super Bowl has the largest reach of any advertising platform in the US, with more than 100 million Americans tuning in across the US and many millions more people globally.”

A key focus of the $50m package is to leverage and grow international tourism to create demand and build awareness for premium Australian wine, which assistant minister for agriculture and water resources Anne Ruston said is one of Australia’s most important industries.

“The Australian wine sector has enjoyed significant growth in recent years and the $50m Package aims to build on this, with a more than eight-fold increase in investment in marketing campaigns in the USA and China,’ Ruston said. “At home, these investments will help to attract up to 40,000 additional international tourists to visit our world-renowned wine regions by 2019–20, delivering an estimated $170 million to the economy. I’m looking forward to seeing the sector leverage these investments as our reputation for producing fine Australian wine continues to build.”