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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.

There’s never been more pressure on marketers to prove their worth. While the tools, channel ecosystems and real-time data at their disposal create more opportunity than ever to win that argument, the counterbalance is strengthening – and often unrealistic – expectations on marketers to deliver the goods quickly. Which is why courage, knowing the difference between effectiveness and efficiency, measurement principles, and a panache for storytelling and strategy are so critical in emerging marketing leadership today, say judges from this year’s Australian Marketing Institute Excellence Awards in charge of awarding a new individual-based category in the line-up: The Lisa Ronson Next Generation Marketing Leader Award.