It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry attracting millions of backpackers, campers and coach tours every year, as well as employing thousands of New Zealanders to service it. So it’s a mystery as to why tourism doesn’t get the specialist news coverage it warrants. Luckily, two journalists are on the task with the launch of Tourism Ticker, a digital news site for New Zealand’s flourishing tourism industry.
Destination Queenstown is counting down to spring in its new interactive campaign, which encourages Australians to make the trip across the ditch by showing off the town’s views.
‘Meanwhile in… New Zealand’, Kiwi kids are enjoying winter ice cream up Mt Hutt according to Air New Zealand’s latest installment of its long running campaign, which is an effort to encourage Australians to take advantage of daily flights to Christchurch.
Queenstown has long been considered the jewel in New Zealand’s tourism crown. Famous for its epic mountains, sparkling lake, winter sports and bountiful vineyards. Destination Queenstown has just launched its latest campaign, highlighting that the southern town is just as (if not more) beautiful in autumn through an image-heavy parallax created by Time Zone One, print and outdoor advertising via Queenstown agency Feast.
Wellington Tourism is trying to catch the attention of Australians in Sydney and Melbourne through a new online campaign that features several well-known Aussie business people experiencing what the capital city has to offer. Developed in partnership by Tourism New Zealand, Positively Wellington Tourism (PWT) and Destination Marlborough, the three-part ‘Inspired by Wellington’ campaign, which was executed by Whybin\TBWA Sydney, is currently being rolled out via the Wellington Tourism website.
16 years ago, the 100% Pure slogan was born (after being conceived by an Australian agency). And, despite a few naysayers pointing to the fact that it’s not entirely true, it’s widely recognised as one of the world’s most successful tourism marketing campaigns. For the past three years, it’s had a distinctly fantastical feel as part of the 100% Pure, 100% Middle Earth campaign, but rather than chuck it all out and start again, it’s decided on an evolution, both in terms of the comms and the visual identity. PLUS: Andrew Fraser on Tourism New Zealand’s growing digital focus.
Tourism New Zealand has 100% Pure. Wellington has its Absolutely Positively. What’s Auckland’s story? ATEED’s Vivien Bridgwater is tasked with opening the book.
50 Wellington locations were captured in four days of shooting for Positively Wellington Tourism’s new commercial, which follows a young couple on a whirlwind tour around the capital. And it has even the most hardcore Wellingtonians watching again to try and pinpoint every location in the clip.
Auckland, Wellington and Rotorua have had a bit of tourism work done recently. And Tourism Bay of Plenty is following suit with a campaign that hopes to lure visitors to the region and get them to open their wallets over the peak summer season.
The team behind Stqry, an app that lets people find local attractions and immerse themselves in the story around it, has launched a competition to showcase some of our best art, culture, history, heritage and wildlife spots.
Tourism New Zealand is taking its message to key new Latin American and Indonesian emerging markets with new versions of the newzealand.com. The four new translated editions for Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia bring the total number of market versions to 20.
GrabOne, best known for its daily deals, is marketing itself to a new audience with a booking and information site for national travellers.
A new Positively Wellington Tourism campaign aims to sweep away perceptions of a blustery city where the chances of an enjoyable visit depend on the weather. The domestic marketing push shows off people and places: craft beer tasting at Garage Project; cheese buying at local food institution Moore Wilson’s; fish and chips with the family at Oriental Bay; brunch at Maranui Cafe and more.
Tourism New Zealand has found a way to tempt visitors thinking of a premium activity based holiday, as well as those whose appetite has been whetted by the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with a new-look 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand campaign.
Airlines and tourism marketing entities go together like raspberry and Coke, and following some successful recent partnerships, Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand have upped the stakes, agreeing to a one-year, more than $20 million deal to promote travel to New Zealand, an increase of around 80 percent on the previous year. PLUS: Air New Zealand drops the blue in new livery.
Coat-tailing on the success of The Hobbit trilogy is paying off for Tourism New Zealand and it says it’s a strategy that will feature heavily in the organisation’s three-year plan for marketing the country to the rest of the world.
Bay of Plenty gets a new attitude (and along with it a new slogan) as the region attempts to squeeze into the top four tourist destinations in New Zealand.
When it comes to Pacific destinations, Tonga is a long way down the consideration list and has smaller visitor numbers than Fiji, Samoa, Rarotonga and Vanuatu, primarily because, unlike those countries, it has never really invested in promoting itself. But for the first time in its history, the Kingdom has taken to TV with a trans-Tasman campaign that aims to build on the 2012 launch of ‘the True South Pacific’ brand and show what its 176 islands can offer visitors.
In six weeks Tourism Radio’s apps for campervan operators like Maui, Britz and Motorhome Republic have been downloaded 4500 times. It’s a modest starting point, but the company has high hopes for taking a slice out of New Zealand’s $15 billion tourism economy using smartphones.
Tourism New Zealand’s marketing strategy is all about convincing ‘active considerers’ to give New Zealand a go. And almost all of its budget is now spent on digital marketing to communicate directly with consumers, with the award-winning newzealand.com website acting as the central hub to convert them to travel. And, with the help of TBWA\’s Digital Arts Network (DAN), the latest iteration of the site has been launched.
The government has an eye on changing the way it markets the country as a whole, and in a recent StopPress column, Courtney Lambert argued that a mixed agency model was the way to go.
Auckland and Wellington have recently prostrated themselves in front of their fellow countryfolk with campaigns aimed at luring more domestic visitors, a group that makes up around 60 percent of the total tourism take but often seems to be overlooked in favour of the glitzy foreigners. And Rotorua has followed suit by starting up a three-year, $2.25 million conversation called ‘Famously Rotorua’ that aims to get affluent northern urbanites to head past the Bombays for a bit of nature, culture and excitement.
After a tender process that ended up attracting over 50 submissions, Sydney agency Iris was chosen to lead Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism’s push to bring Aussies back to the region after a 43 percent decline in visitor numbers since the earthquake. And it has launched a campaign based around a series of long-form mockumentary episodes, with Mayor Bob Parker playing on Australia’s love of oversized novelty structures and real-time images used to show how far the city has moved on.
Tourism New Zealand put out a call for entries for a new agency in early September and, while TNZ’s Justin Watson made a commitment not to disclose the pitch list as “some of them might have conflicts”, it’s thought to have been whittled down to four: Clemenger Group, Droga5, Publicis Mojo and TBWA\.
Tongan supporters have certainly drawn a lot of attention over the Rugby World Cup campaign and riding on the back of that enthusiasm comes the unveiling of the country’s new tourism campaign ‘Tonga – The True South Pacific’. Featuring a brand overhaul, the campaign comes courtesy of agency bcg2 and sister agency Mediacom.
Tourism is one of Aotearoa’s biggest earners, so when volcanoes erupt halfway around the world, it tends to cast a bit of a pall over our pulling power.
Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure campaign has come under renewed fire recently after our Dear Leader’s interview with Hard Talk. But as TNZ’s general manager marketing communications Justin Watson said in a recent interview with NZ Marketing, the campaign was never intended to be an environmental promise. It was about the whole experience. Recently, with the help of its agencies Razorfish and Assignment Group, it launched 100% Pure You to try and attract more ‘active considerers’ to the country and it’s just gone live with some new online trickery that’s being featured on popular German and Australian news and travel websites. See the birds, dolphins and underwater marvels here.
Tourism was the country’s biggest earner in 2010, just nudging ahead of dairy and putting $9.5 billion into the nation’s coffers. And while New Zealand has rarely had to deal with image crises in the past, the recent quake in Christchurch and the ensuing media coverage will have a detrimental effect on visitor numbers. But, for all those patriotic souls out there, there are ways you can help to get the visitors coming back.
… Saatchi & Saatchi brings in a big gun to fill a creative void, Wellywood digital agency Resn takes the piss and, at the same time, enhances its hygiene, Tourism NZ announces some fresh blood and Breeze DJ Kerry Smith leaves to fight a health battle.
The people and businesses of the Garden City have endured trying times this year but they have at least one cause for celebration: Christchurch Casino took home the Air New Zealand supreme award at this year’s Tourism Industry Awards, while Kelly Tarlton’s was recognised for its innovative marketing campaigns and Rhythm and Vines took home the best festival/event tourism award.