South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) has launched the sequel to its controversial 'Old Mate' ad.
The sequel advert is going live today in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in the lead up to the the AFL and NRL Grand Finals.
Brent Hill, executive director of marketing for SATC, says the ad is still pushing out the same message as the first: visit Adelaide before it is too late.
"What we’ve been able to do this time around, we’ve got the opportunity to showcase more of what you can see in Adelaide to those who are a little bit unfamiliar with it," Hill told AdNews.
"You do get to see places like McLaren Vale and the city beaches, laneway bars and so on."
To recap, the first tongue-in-cheek advert tells the story of ‘Old Mate’ who put off coming to Adelaide and South Australia for too long, only visited when he was too old and then regretted it.
This stirred up debate across the country and Tourism Tasmania even waded in this week, creating a parody ad in response.
Hill says he enjoyed seeing the original ad capture the attention of other states and the "banter" with Tasmania.
The inital 'Old Mate' ad was based upon market research which indicated that while Adelaide is a rising destination, there are still many people who have put off coming to Adelaide and South Australia to “one day”, or its “on the bucket list”.
Following the debate in media and on social, Old Mate is back, and he’s brought his mates.
Hill says the decision to bring back Old Mate was sparked after numerous requests to interview the fictional character.
"What crystalised it for me was just the amount of interview requests that I had for Old Mate himself.
"There was so many people asking if they could interview Old Mate and that was the thing for me that [there] was this real interest in his character, what he’d seen and done in Adelaide. So, from that point I knew we could go ahead and bring him back."
The focus of the sequel advert going is Old Mate now showing off Adelaide – ‘his city’ - to his mates.
Now it is his mates who have the regret of not having come to Adelaide sooner, but they are consoled by seeing their Mate revelling in his new favourite city.
The new advert also features highlights from across South Australia including: d’Arenberg Cube, Sellicks beach, Adelaide’s city laneways and urban beaches.
Will Old Mate continue to make more appearances in South Australia's tourism ads?
"As to future plans, I guess we will wait and see what the reaction is," Hill says.
"People really warm to him as a character and probably really want to see where he goes and what he does but it’s not necessarily something we plan to take forward in a year. It just depends on that reaction. Maybe next time he brings Beryl down for a romantic weekend in the Barossa."
The SATC ads were created by the tourism body's creative agency TBWA Adelaide who won the account last year up against 35 agencies including incumbent and Adelaide local KWP who had held the account for a decade.
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