What is Australia Week?
G’Day USA: Australia Week 2009 is a festival running from January 13-24, 2009 that showcases the best of Australian culture, business and tourism. With over 15,000 participants in 2008, it is now the largest annual foreign country promotion in the United States.
For five years, Australia Week has brought Australian food and wine, travel, film, arts, culture, fashion and business to a US audience.
The objective of Australia Week is to demonstrate Australia as an innovative, high growth, sophisticated economy, with leading edge research and technology in products, goods and services. The program highlights Australia’s economic credentials as a desirable place in which to do business and invest, source goods and services.
key highlights of australia week
TRADE
The Australia Week promotion has resulted in excess of $22.5 million in trade and investment across sectors as diverse as art, food, wine, fashion, tourism and business services.
Fashion has become a key component in the program, allowing Australian designers to gain a foothold in the highly complex US market. Since the Australia Week Fashion Showroom was instituted in 2007, several designers have recorded significant export sales to high end fashion department/specialty stores.
Food and Beverage: Australia Week has vastly improved access of Australian products to the U.S. market. During the first week of the supermarket promotion in New York, high demand forced Citarella stores to re-order several Australian products.
The 2008 Bristol Farms promotion saw Australian product lines expand from 32 items in 2007 to 46 items. Citarella’s second Australia Week promotion in 2008 featured 53 Australian product lines, an increase of 20 products from the previous year.
The 2008 Winter Fancy Food Show attracted over 16,000 buyers from food, wine, gift & department stores, supermarkets & restaurants from around the world, with 32,000 visitors and attendees. With trade outcomes from 2008 still being collected, exhibitors predict even bigger results than 2007’s 31 export deals, totalling more than $3.7 million.
INNOVATION
The Innovation Day has provided Australian companies visibility, new deals and partnerships with members of the American venture capital and R&D industries. Fermiscan, the winner of the 2008 Innovation competition, received extensive media coverage including Fox Business News, BusinessWeek Magazine, ABC News NY and CW 11 New York.
TOURISM
Qantas bookings rose during Australia Week 2008 to record-breaking levels. As a result of the promotion, in April 2008, Qantas Airways will increase its capacity to offer 47 flights between US and Australia – nearly doubling capacity over the last five years since the promotion began.
Australia-Week.com and Australia.com received almost 150,000 visits, with visitors spending 17,500 hours learning about Australia.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Australia Week 2008 media coverage generated 445 million global audience impressions -- an equivalent advertising buy of approximately $7.5 million.
US Media
BusinessWeek, People, New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, LA Times, AP, Discover Magazine, Metro, AM New York, Bizbash, US Weekly, Ok Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter & Time Out NY, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, Extra, CBS Early Show, Today Show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Fox & Friends, Martha Stewart, Inside Edition, ABC News NY, E! News, CW 11, KCBS 2 News (LA), Good Day LA, Good Day NY, Fox Affiliates.
Australian Media
Sky News, Today Show, Network Ten News, Seven Network News, Nine Network News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV News and Radio, Austereo Network, Radio 2GB and Fairfax Radio Network (including 2UE, 6PR, 3AW), Australian Associated Press, The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Who, Woman’s Day, News Limited Newspapers (including Sun Herald, The Courier-Mail, Adelaide Advertiser, The Daily Telegraph), Queensland Business Review, Ragtrader and Encore Magazine and MX.
In addition to the media coverage, a partnership with BusinessWeek delivered a special supplement about Australia. More than 4.8 million readers received the supplement, including over 620,000 C-level executives.
