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A crisis specialist who survived his own public meltdown has spotted early warning signals that stress and burnout within the upper ranks of media and marketing are reaching critical levels. Enquiries from C-suite industry execs in the sector are up 300 per cent this year, making the brand supply chain the fastest growing cohort of those finding themselves approaching crisis point – or past it. Gary Fahey, a former executive officer to AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin, unpacks the root causes of what’s gone wrong, and how to start to fix it.

Sydney has a brand consideration problem in the domestic market, sitting third behind Melbourne and the Gold Coast as a holiday destination choice thanks to pre-conceived notions of what makes the city worth visiting. Yet if the NSW Government’s plan to increase visitor expenditure by 40 per cent to $91 billion in the next 10 years is to be realised, leaving such limited perceptions in place isn’t an option. This week, Destination NSW takes the wrappers off version 2.0 of its brand platform, ‘Feel New’, with a decidedly cultural skew on creative and content, and six new experience ambassadors in train. It’s a direct challenge to perceptions of Sydney as just an opera house, harbour and bridge – with lots of traffic – and pitch for 25-54-year-old, high-yield experience hunters. It’s a play backed by multi-year brand and attitudinal tracking, consumer insights and media targeting, says Destination NSW GM of consumer marketing, Kathryn Illy. Plus a deliberate effort to swim against the sea of sameness in tourism marketing – all aimed at flipping attitudes so more Aussies visit Sydney in the next 12 months.