But how does one go about it? And who are the buyers?

Now at this point I should point out that I am not actually a Novocastrian. But I did live in Tighes Hill in the mid 90’s. And about 8 years ago I bought a farm up on The Branch Lane (past Raymond Terrace) where I now spend my weekends. I also work for Peach and pop in every week.

So it does put me in the unique position of knowing the town pretty well but also having an outsider’s perspective, which can be helpful. In fact, I’ve often wondered if the Tourism Australia campaigns fail because the people writing them are too close. And that it might be better to give the account to an overseas ad agency (shock horror) because they’re the ones who would have a better understanding of the kinds of things that would motivate potential tourists to come to Australia, whereas we’re just guessing about what they want to see. And apparently it’s not actually Lara Bingle.

Before we even get on with the task of writing ads to attract people to Newcastle we need to identify who or what Newcastle is - in adspeak, what is the Newcastle ‘brand’.  Working out a brand is a pretty complex process but a brief look at what Newcastle has to offer says it should be an easy sell - clean air, beaches, the opportunity to live rural and yet work in the CBD or live affordably in the city, reasonable wages and relatively low unemployment.
We then need to identify our potential target, or, as we say, the low hanging fruit - those who can be most easily persuaded (no point targeting people who are very happy with their current situation, it’s a waste of money).

Then we need to look at what barriers might prevent people moving here. Some of the barriers are merely perceived and can be allayed using facts. For instance, the perception that Newcastle is an industrial city with high pollution (a hangover from the old BHP days).
The real barriers are trickier. For example, that living in Newcastle means being away from the action in Sydney. To be fair, it is an easy 2 hour drive down the F3, except of course between the hours of 5.30 am and 11.30 am and then again between 3.30 pm and 8.30 pm when it can take anywhere up to 5 hours.

But the trick with advertising is to identify the barriers and then either turn them into positives or downplay them. For example, Newcastle isn’t so much away from the ‘action’ of Sydney as away from the ‘stresses’ of Sydney.

Then we need to check out the competition. Gold Coast? Too much bling but no substance. Melbourne? Too cultured (I ought to know, I grew up there and as every Aussie knows, cultured is just another word for ‘up itself’). Adelaide? Too many churches and serial killers (not, I suspect, unrelated). And everywhere else is either too far away, too cold or populated by way too many Queenslanders. Wollongong is the only real competition and is probably the most similar to Newcastle in offering. It’s also closer to Sydney which is a big selling point. But if Newcastle has a lingering perception of being an industrial town, Wollongong actually is an industrial town and that should work against it nicely.

So finally it’s simply a matter of coming up with a brilliant advertising campaign and in no time at all you could have hordes of Sydneysiders moving here, pushing up the price of housing, taking jobs and crowding your lovely beaches….As the old saying goes ‘be careful what you wish for’.