Local councils who adopt the Australian Nation brand can use it to promote their regions, products and services domestically and overseas, Austrade says.

The development of Australia’s Nation brand began in 2017 after a Foreign Policy White Paper committed to developing a stronger brand for the nation “that reinforces our reputation as an internationally competitive investment destination, a great place to visit, a quality provider of education and a trusted exporter of premium quality goods and services”.

Stewardship of the project was handed to the government’s trade, investment and education promotion agency, the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, or Austrade.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing though, with an otherwise elegant wattle-based logo designed prior to the height of the covid pandemic widely lampooned for its unfortunate resemblance to the coronavirus.

Austrade has moved on and has a logo featuring a Kangaroo and more than 500 other free assets available for use, the agency’s general manager of communications and marketing Jessica Hamilton says.

“We’ve used that brand to move on and let the work speak for itself,” Hamilton told Government News on the sidelines of the Place Branding Australia 2024 Conference in Sydney on Wednesday.

In an address to the conference, Hamilton described the Nation Brand as an umbrella for government, business and industry to promote Australia internationally.

To date it’s been used to promote services and products ranging from avocados and oranges to fintech, hydrogen electrolysers and international education.

Three pillars

The concept rests on three pillars of people, place and products, Hamilton says.

“There’s three Ps to it,” she said. “There’s place, which is really important, and there’s the people who are inextricably linked to it. And it’s about product as well.

“It’s this combination of places and people coming together to produce extraordinary things, whether they’re products or services, experiences, whatever they might be.

“It’s bringing those three things together and telling those stories about how those people in that place created such a great outcome.”

Getting the logo right

The logo, designed by Indigenous design agency Balarinji and launched in 2021, represents a kangaroo constructed from boomerangs leaping into the future, and uses the signature Australian colours of green and gold.

“Our view was that this nation brand needed to reflect and respect and represent 65,000 years of continuous living culture that we need to honour and build a future for as well,” Hamilton said.

“So not only does the brand need to be authentic and to be recognised by our First Nations people as authentic and by everyday Australians, it also needs to be something in which it becomes a vehicle in which we can realise our potential and our future as a nation.”

Widely used

The Nation Brand toolkit is currently being used by 1900 individuals each year and 755 organisations, including 40 federal government and state government agencies.

Hamilton says her proudest moment was seeing it as the symbol of Australia when the Matildas played in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“For that symbol to have been used on the sideline of all those events, across all those broadcasts, in every single match … was a real moment of pride for us,” she said.

Australia is viewed internationally as the fourth most favourable country in the world, Hamilton says. But while that translates into tourists, what it doesn’t always translate into is people buying Australian products, or studying in Australia, or investing in Australia.

“In activating our brand and helping us translate that  familiarity into intention and purpose, we’re really wanting to try and activate that and make that happen,” she said.

Helping councils take their regions to the world

She says using assets from the Australian Nation Brand umbrella can save local councils money and time on branding, and helps ensure they don’t pick wrong or inappropriate symbols.

The resources can be used for a wide range of purposes including social media, trade shows,  promoting a region, stands and story telling.

“We’re really trying to tell the unique story of people, places and products,” she says.

“If you want to tell a unique Australian story there’s some great guidelines to help you structure that story in a really compelling way.

“It can really help them cut through and say this content, or this offering is Australian.”

The assets are available through the Austrade website.

To learn more about Australia’s Nation Brand, visit brandaustralia.com.

*Austrade is a partner of Place Branding Australia