Tourism Australia's Come and Say G'day 2025 campaign reunites Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo with Robert Irwin and Yosh Yu across seven international markets.
ARCHIVETourism Australia Bets on Ruby the Kangaroo for a New Era of Global Destination Marketing
Tourism Australia's Come and Say G'day 2025 campaign is the second chapter of a globally running destination marketing platform, created by Droga5 and The Monkeys, in which animated brand ambassador Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo returns alongside market-specific talent including Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin and Chinese actor Yosh Yu to showcase the lasting emotional impact of an Australian holiday across seven international markets.
The campaign marks a deliberate evolution from broad recovery-era messaging toward localised advocacy. Ruby, a CGI souvenir kangaroo voiced by Australian actor Rose Byrne in the original 2022 chapter according to tourism.australia.com, has been retained as the connective creative asset precisely because of her cross-cultural versatility. As an animated character, she can speak multiple languages — a capability that directly enables the market-led approach Tourism Australia is deploying in 2025.
In Australia, tourism competitiveness depends heavily on sustained international awareness across geographically and culturally distinct markets. The 2025 rollout reflects that complexity: China receives campaign assets from 7 August, India in late August, with the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Germany following in September and South Korea in November. Each market activation is timed to align with key booking periods, translating brand momentum into commercial conversion. The campaign is supported by a reported budget of A$130 million, according to Transparency Gov Au. David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song, described the work as both a privilege and a responsibility, stating: "As an Australian living abroad, it is both a privilege and a deep responsibility to help invite the world back home." Mark Green, Global CEO of Droga5, confirmed the agency is proud of the campaign led by Droga5 ANZ.
ARCHIVETourism Australia built the 2025 campaign on a compound creativity thesis. Susan Coghill, Chief Marketing Officer of Tourism Australia, emphasised the power of consistency and compound creativity as the strategic foundation, according to Little Black Book — a recognition that brand salience in destination marketing accumulates over time rather than resetting with each campaign cycle.
The evidence supporting that thesis is concrete. The first chapter of Come and Say G'day, which launched globally in October 2022 per tourism.australia.com, achieved first-quartile advertising effectiveness across its testing life. Consideration for an Australian holiday increased by 10% in the United States, United Kingdom and China during that period, and among audiences who saw the first campaign, consideration rose by 15%, according to tourism.australia.com. Flight searches for Australia increased by 22% during the campaign period, also per tourism.australia.com. These figures sit within a travel category defined by long consideration cycles and fierce inter-destination competition.
Australia's primary destination competitors in long-haul travel include Japan and the United Kingdom, both of which have invested significantly in post-pandemic international marketing recoveries. Against that competitive backdrop, Tourism Australia's decision to anchor the 2025 campaign in localised talent — Robert Irwin for English-speaking markets, Yosh Yu for China, and Sara Tendulkar for India, as reported by Marketing Interactive — represents a pointed strategic response to the cultural specificity required to shift booking intent rather than merely awareness. The global travel market remains a growing and highly contested arena, with international tourist arrivals reaching approximately 1.52 billion in the most recent measured period and growing at approximately 4% versus the prior year, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. In Australia specifically, international visitor recovery makes the sustained investment in a recognisable, consistent platform both commercially rational and strategically differentiated.
The creative execution of Come and Say G'day 2025 centres on an emotional mechanic: the lasting imprint an Australian holiday leaves on visitors after they return home. Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo functions as the physical embodiment of that imprint — a keepsake character who travels with visitors and, in doing so, carries Australia's personality into living rooms and daily lives across seven markets.
The animated format is not decorative. Ruby's CGI construction allows her to be dubbed and culturally localised without recasting, maintaining brand coherence while enabling the linguistic and tonal shifts that market-specific storytelling demands. The pairing of Ruby with human talent — Robert Irwin, whose family identity is inseparable from Australian wildlife and conservation; Yosh Yu, a Chinese actor with existing cultural currency in that market; and Sara Tendulkar, deployed for the India launch according to marketing-interactive.com — gives each market a local entry point into what remains a singular global brand narrative.
Droga5 ANZ and The Monkeys served as the creative agencies on the 2025 chapter, continuing the partnership that shaped the original 2022 platform. David Droga noted that Australian talent from across the Droga5 network came together to shape the campaign's next chapter, according to tourism.australia.com. The production approach reflects the campaign's multinational distribution ambitions: assets are designed not for a single hero market but for sequential, booking-period-aligned launches across China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and South Korea. Production credits beyond agency leadership for the 2025 chapter are not fully publicly documented at time of publication. The structural craft decision — retaining Ruby, retaining the Come and Say G'day line, and retaining the emotional advocacy frame — is itself a creative choice, one that distinguishes this campaign from destination marketers who reset their platform with each budget cycle.
The first chapter of Come and Say G'day delivered measurable commercial impact. Consideration for an Australian holiday increased by 10% in the United States, United Kingdom and China, and by 15% among audiences directly exposed to the campaign, according to tourism.australia.com. Flight searches for Australia increased by 22% across the campaign period, also per tourism.australia.com. These are structural outcomes — shifts in declared intent rather than awareness proxies — and they validate the platform's two-year consistency.
No verified performance data specific to the 2025 second chapter of Come and Say G'day is publicly available at the time of this publication, as the campaign launched in stages from August 2025 onward. A broader account of the Come and Say G'day platform's award history, reported by lbbonline.com, references recognition including a Spikes Asia Grand Prix, Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio Golds and multiple Effies, though individual award categories, levels and years specific to each chapter cannot be independently verified.
The campaign's structural effectiveness is grounded in its compound design. By retaining Ruby, the campaign line and the global market architecture from 2022 through 2025, Tourism Australia has built a platform with declining creative development costs per impression cycle and increasing brand recognition returns — a model that Susan Coghill described as compound creativity, according to lbbonline.com. The Clapboard Score for Come and Say G'day 2025 is 76 out of 100, reflecting strong creative consistency, clear strategic rationale and verified first-chapter performance data, offset by the limited public availability of second-chapter metrics at launch.
Come and Say G'day is Tourism Australia's global destination marketing platform, launched in October 2022 and continued in 2025. Created by Droga5 and The Monkeys, it features animated brand ambassador Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo and showcases the lasting emotional impact of visiting Australia across seven international markets including the United States, United Kingdom and China.
Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo is Tourism Australia's animated CGI brand ambassador. As an animated character, Ruby can be dubbed into multiple languages, making her ideally suited to Tourism Australia's market-led approach. According to tourism.australia.com, Ruby has helped increase consideration for an Australian holiday by 15% among audiences who saw the first campaign.
The 2025 campaign features Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin, Chinese actor Yosh Yu and, for the India market, Sara Tendulkar, as reported by marketing-interactive.com. Each talent provides a culturally specific entry point for their respective market while Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo maintains the campaign's single global brand identity across all seven markets.
Droga5 ANZ and The Monkeys served as the creative agencies on the 2025 campaign. Mark Green, Global CEO of Droga5, confirmed the agency's pride in the campaign led by Droga5 ANZ, according to tourism.australia.com. David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song, also noted that Australian talent from across the Droga5 network shaped the campaign's next chapter.
The 2025 campaign runs across seven international markets. China received assets from 7 August, India in late August, and the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Germany in September, with South Korea following in November, according to tourism.australia.com. Each launch is timed to align with key booking periods in each respective market to maximise commercial conversion.
The broader Come and Say G'day platform has been associated with recognition including a Spikes Asia Grand Prix, Cannes Lions, D&AD and Effies, as reported by lbbonline.com, though individual award categories and years for specific chapters cannot be independently verified. No verified award records specific to the 2025 second chapter have been publicly confirmed at time of publication.
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