It’s tough finding the perfect gift. And time is running out to find it before Christmas. But Colenso and Heart of the City have joined forces to make it slightly easier—and to promote the shopping districts of the Auckland CBD—with the launch of the Gift Guru, a festive addition to the Big Little City website that offers hints and tips from “super stylist and shopping extraordinaire” Charlotte Rust.
It’s hard to promote crap places, which means town branding campaigns often end up smacking of desperation (‘Milton: A Town of Opportunities’, for example). But you would think promoting a city that Monocle magazine recently ranked the world’s 16th most livable would be a much easier task. Sadly, due in part to the fragmented bureaucracy of the past, Auckland’s promotional efforts have been rather disjointed in recent years, especially when compared to the impressive destination marketing work done by the Wellingtonians and New Zealand as a whole. Now, however, after the birth of the Super City and the lure of all those domestic and foreign visitors expected to hit the Auckland streets during the Rugby World Cup, things have been turned up a notch or two.
Despite recent well-publicised difficulties in the retail sector, Newmarket has done a pretty good job of trumpeting its swankiness and array of shopping options. But it now has a suburban rival, after an enthusiastic group of business owners from the High Street District, together with the champions of the Auckland CBD Heart of The City, appointed the Toot Group to ramp up interest in the area with “an exciting new campaign of happenings”.