Matt Cameron-Brown back in Australia from the UK

Matt and The Mole met at Dreamtime over the weekend on the Gold Coast and The Mole took the opportunity to ask Matt what could be learnt from what was happening in the industry in the UK and how that can impact on Australia’s marketing and sales in the UK.

He said that the big challenge in the UK is the continuing consolidation within distribution and the challenge of achieving cut through for the Australian messages.

For example Cendant has bought Travelbag and Travel 2 and even MFS is reputedly having a look at Travel 2 and you have to remember they own a lot of product which they will want to push through their outlets, so the impact will be interesting with one company owing the supply and the product and the impact that will have.

Our primary focus in the UK was to broaden the distribution of Australia in the UK and get to operators who were not selling Aus like Kuoni to do so, who then doubled their programmes and releasing a 200 page brochure which is very exciting.

We have brought major buyers down to Aus and their response was pretty clear in that they said they have to sell Aus!

The biggest challenge will be the ongoing growth of on line with Expedia the largest and the on line challenge for Aus is how do you portray the experience though on line media?

One really good thing for Aus in terms of competitive fares and convenience has been that the agreement between Virgin Blue and Malaysian means that you can book fares right through to a heap of destinations in Aus.

Also in the UK, they will book their air to Aus on line but will still go the High Street travel agent or the direct sell tour operator, because they want comfort, advice and knowledge about the destination and this is especially true of the first time traveller as they really need help and guidance.

The Where The Bloody Hell Are You campaign relates to the challenge so that the Australia bound traveller in Bradford or wherever that thinks they have to plan the trip to Aus for two or three years, with the WBHAY campaign being about a personal invitation.

Depending on the time of year, lead times between interest, booking and travelling to Aus can be as low as six weeks, with 13 weeks the mid point for travel to Aus.

In terms of its effectiveness and driving business any new campaign needs time to get traction and the second burst only took place on 22 Sept, therefore, we had only had one burst of brand with the next one in March and it is very early days, but the trade here should be realistic as campaigns of this nature take time.

Also, the strapline is only part of it with the Brits understanding what we were saying and of course, it could be said that the controversy in the UK was the best thing that happened to use – real people – no actors, with another key

We have range of cooperative ways that we can work with the trade and of course our State and Territory partners working together in Destination Australia partnership and it makes commercial sense to analyse how it has been tracking and if it is meeting the requirements and needs of the industry.

Messages I brought back from the UK? 

We work in a global market and the markets we will focus on are the source markets for Aus and we need to make sure that we realise that we are not necessarily the biggest player in those markets, but a very popular and highly regarded destination.

We also have to realise that 7/11 changed the face of travel and consumers are now bombarded with heaps of messages and in Europe in particulars, the advent of  LCC’s meaning that there are 60 million low cost flights out of the UK every year and for that reasons, while Majorca is not a destinational competitor the competition in the UK is for the buck.

Another is how important it is to work as one Australia brand in a market such as the UK.

There are actually two agreements between TA and the States in terms of working together, with one the marketing partnership and the other co-location and with QLD having outsourced their representation to Hills Balfour, QLD is no longer co-located.

Yes, the UK is flat last few months, but we have to remember that Australia is enjoying the 14^th year of compound growth and business to Aus from the UK has never dipped with operators reporting that Nov, Dec and Jan are very strong and while the Ashes are part of it, the reality is that it is only a small part of the strength of the market and destination.

The key issues to Australian product success in the UK are to understand the distribution, ensure the product fits the market – check that you have what the UK traveller wants and talk to the STO about market intelligence and performance in that state.

It can be difficult to get an audience with product managers, but you will succeed if you do your negotiations at the right time, when contracting and purchasing is happening and that if your price structure is set to allow working with ITO’s.

My biggest challenge in my new role is managing the growth from boom markets including China, Korea and India and being realistic about what can be achieved.  We have to manage this exciting growth and while the growth is great we just need to ensure it is sustainable.

Report by The Mole