Tourism Australia has come up with a new tagline and campaign - “There’s Nothing Like Australia” which aims to showcase all the things that make Australia unlike anywhere else.

"There's Nothing like" Australia Tourism tagline

And this time they made sure there would be no Lara Bingle raising bloody hell. Actually, in addition to staying away from controversy, the two-phase campaign has been smartly designed to capitalize on user generated content and social networking.

Starting today, Australians are being invited to start taking photos of their favourite place or experience in Australia and come up with a description in 20 words or less on what makes it uniquely Australian.

A sample for Queensland is shown in the picture to the left, with the suggestive tagline – “There’s Nothing Like… Queensland.”

Andrew McEvoy, Managing Director, Tourism Australia, explains that “Australians are the experts on what is unique and special about their country and we want to share this with potential travellers in a way that will make them want to come and visit our country.”

So for Phase I, Tourism Australia is spending $4 million to create an interactive map of Australia, made up of all the things Australians think are special about their country.

From 15 April to May 12, Australians will have the chance to upload their entries to the campaign website www.nothinglikeaustralia.com. 

The data will then be used to create the interactive map, which will be searchable by experience type, location, and by 1,000 keywords. The map will be available on both australia.com and nothinglikeaustralia.com.

The Phase II global launch will be in May 2010, with the campaign website and map being made public, accompanied by a television commercial.

Some of the submitted entries will be used in print and online advertising globally. Tourism Australia will also create videos of suggested locations, to be used in ads on TV and in online video ads. They plan to spend $150 million on the campaign over the next three years.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. has launched a new series of video ads on the Funny or Die website to push its meetings business. The ads show all kinds of things going horribly wrong at meetings, and end with the premise that these things do not happen at Hyatt properties.

Hyatt Meetings Video ad 'Ultra Lounge' on Funny or Die

The first video, titled ‘Ultra-Lounge’ begins with a meeting about to begin and the meetings planner who put it together bragging to his boss about the hip lounge next door which they can hit after the meeting.

As the presentation begins, the slide falls over and then the music begins to throb and no one can hear anything else.

To make things worse, a young couple crashes in from the lounge next door and starts making out on the conference table.

The video ends with the boss shouting to the planner that he’s fired, and then the Hyatt tag line “Bad meetings happen. Just not here.”

Hyatt Meetings Video ad 'Benihana' on Funny or Die

The second video titled ‘Benihana’ is just as enjoyable. Starts with a boss mad at the planner because everyone is busy enjoying the chef’s antics, and a 15 minute snack break got turned into a 2 hour fun fest.

There’s only 7 minutes of scheduled meeting time left. The fun loving planner reluctantly clears the table and just as the boss starts talking about fourth quarter profits, a mime tiptoes into the room and the meeting again comes to a halt. Cue the tag line.

The deal with Funny or Die was put together for Hyatt by its media agency PHD, and Hyatt ended up paying less than $300,000 for the entire project – including production and advertising.

Original thinking by Hyatt’s ad guys, and given how bitingly funny the videos are, safe to say that Hyatt is going to get a huge ROI on its $300,000 investment on this campaign.

The Hyatt Meetings videos debut on Funny or Die (http://www.funnyordie.com) on Thursday. Meanwhile, you can see the videos here and here.