Episode #255
How Tourism Tasmania turned a weakness into a brand asset
What happens when a tourism brand stops apologising for its perceived weaknesses and turns them into its greatest strength? In this episode of The CMO Show , host Mark Jones sits down with Lindene Cleary, Chief Marketing Officer at Tourism Tasmania, to unpack the strategy behind one of Australia's most distinctive and effective destination marketing platforms: Come down for Air and its Autumn/Winter extension, The Off Season . Now in its sixth year, the The Off Season campaign has helped transform winter from a traditional tourism challenge into a compelling reason to visit Tasmania. Lindene shares how the team identified a long-term structural problem facing the state's tourism industry, why discounting wasn't the answer, and how they built a brand platform that encouraged visitors to embrace, rather than avoid, the cold. The conversation explores the evolution of the campaign's now-iconic black-and-white creative aesthetic, the strategic decision to lean into Tasmania's raw winter identity, and the importance of staying true to the realities of the destination. Lindene also discusses the role of long-term brand building, stakeholder alignment, and why smaller brands with limited budgets often can't afford to play it safe. Along the way, she reveals how bold earned-media activations such as Odd Jobs for the Off Season generated global attention, how marketers can distinguish between a strategy that's failing and an execution that's tiring, and how Tourism Tasmania balances long-term brand salience with the pressure to deliver measurable tourism outcomes. This episode is packed with practical lessons on brand courage, stakeholder management, creative effectiveness, and the power of consistent long-term thinking for marketers in any category. This episode is brought to you by impact advisory, communications and events agency, ImpactInstitute in partnership with Adobe. www.impactinstitute.com.au | https://business.adobe.com/au
