The ongoing investigation into New Zealand’s absence from maps of the world continues in the latest star-studded video from Tourism New Zealand and Augusto.
Rhys Darby returns to his role as a passionate conspiracy theorist as he attempts to solve the global mystery. After phone calls with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Kiwi director Sir Peter Jackson, Darby goes widely off-track in his investigation.
Following leads of gingernut biscuits, memories of Ed Sheeran visiting New Zealand during his time writing and performing the song ‘I See Fire’ for the 2013 Peter Jackson film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, as well as Sheeran’s now famous words “I’m not a citizen of New Zealand yet, but I’m working on it”, lead Darby to believe Sheeran is the culprit.
Believing that Sheeran has been removing New Zealand from global maps in a bid to gain citizenship while keeping the country exclusive, he shares his theory with a confused Ardern, before abruptly changing track when a package arrives at the front door, from Jackson.
Inside is a newly-designed world map, The Middle-Earth Map, which flips the traditional world map upside down and places New Zealand at the centre. The map was created by calligrapher Daniel Reeve, who designed the maps associated with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she has loved seeing the global response to the Tourism New Zealand campaign.
“With a little help from Sir Peter, my hope is that people will see New Zealand right where it deserves to be – on the top of their list of places to visit.”
Augusto creative directors Matt Sellars and Rich Robson said after leaving the story in the last video pretty open-ended, “we had an overwhelming expectation for afollow-upp, so we had to find a way of bringing the story to a close, while also building on the success of the first content film.”
“It was great fun working with the brave bunch at Tourism New Zealand and led to the idea of pinning the evidence on a high-profile fan of New Zealand and ultimately redesigning the world map.”
The video, which launched today, is a follow-up video to the first #GetNZontheMap video created by Tourism New Zealand and launched back in May.
CREDITS
Tourism New Zealand
PR Project Manager – Carole Tredrea
Global Manager Public Relations and Major Events – Lauren Vosper
Global Brand & Content Manager – Brodie Reid
Augusto
Agency/Production Company – Augusto Group
Director – James Anderson
Creative Director – Matt Sellars
Creative Director– Rich Robson
Client Director –Heath Davy
Executive Producer – Cass Avery
Production Producer –Amy Malloy
Producer –Brad Harvey
Production Manager – Kat Purvis
Editor –Mariano Segedin
Assistant Editor – Jake Hanley
Post Co-ordinator –Zoe Jones
Motion Artist – Shaun Madgewick
Art Department – Dave Cooke & Rod Harge
DOP – Olly Harris
AC – Max Hasant
Sound – Mark Storey & Craig Mullis
Gaffer – Karl Saunders & Craig Farrand
Best Boy – John Bell
LX Assist – Jai Philavong
Grade – Mike Carpinter
Audio – Amy Barber