Brand Australia tops the charts again

For the third consecutive year, Australia has been named as the world’s top country-brand by FutureBrand – the third time in as many years. But the honour isn’t doing us any good.

Tim Riches, managing director of FutureBrand Australia, says the Australia brand is not prompting interest in the country as a place to invest or do business.

“If you are the number one country brand three years running, and you are not converting that into business outcomes, it is a huge missed trick,” he told The Australian.

“The survey found that the countries that were capitalising on their brand strength were led by the US, Germany, the UK, France and Italy.”

Riches says campaigns like the upcoming “Australia,” advertising blitz – based on the Baz Luhrmann film – only promote awareness. Rather, campaigns need to convince people to actually travel to Australia.