Curtain goes up on tourism drive

By Karyn Scherer

QUEENSTOWN - To some, it looks remarkably like an ad for apple juice. Or even New Zealand wool.

For others, it is long overdue and exactly what the world is looking for.

After a tumultuous year, which included what Tourism Board members wearily describe as "The Troubles," the board finally revealed its much-anticipated global marketing campaign to about 500 industry players in Queenstown yesterday.

The response was mixed.

The campaign features the line "100 per cent Pure New Zealand" and will be used in different variations such as 100 per cent pure adrenalin and pure adventure.

Buoyed by champagne and oysters and a surprise appearance by singer Neil Finn, whose song Don't Dream, It's Over is being used for the new television advertisement, delegates greeted the new campaign with enthusiastic applause.

Qantas' general manager for New Zealand and the Pacific, Paul Donovan, said the campaign was perfect. "It made me tingle."

Tourism tutor Ian Morrison was delighted.

"It's back to the basics. All the frilly stuff is gone."

But some industry players said they were not impressed. One delegate complained the campaign made no use of the silver fern. Others criticised it for being too conservative.

"I love the line, but I think they've missed the boat," said Te Papa marketing manager Joanna Doherty.

"There was a really strong feeling at the conference about needing a cultural depth."

Shotover Jet operations manager Clark Scott probably summed up the mood: "Who gives a toss about what we all think? It's what people overseas think."

The campaign marks an important milestone for the tourism industry as it is the first time a global brand has been established for New Zealand. Previously different campaigns have been organised in different countries.

In most overseas markets, cost prohibits television advertising. The ads will mostly feature in print, on the Internet, and on billboards.

The Tourism Board's new chief executive, George Hickton, said the board needed to talk to Trade New Zealand about its "New Zealand Way" promotion. "There is a bit of a clean-up there to do."

Criticism that the board had not sought enough feedback on the campaign exasperated him.

"I have never seen a campaign so extensively tested as this one."

The campaign is being counted on to strengthen the tourism industry's clout with politicians, as it fights for recognition as New Zealand's biggest export earner.

It also comes as New Zealand's biggest tourist market, Australia, prepares to launch its own $A16 million campaign to promote domestic tourism.

While independent research has shown New Zealand can expect growth in tourist numbers of about 6 per cent a year for the next six years, the board is crossing its fingers for a more optimistic figure of about 10 per cent a year - higher than the boom period in the 1980s.

Mr Hickton acknowledged previous over-optimism with the 3 million tourist target set in the early 90s, but said the board was aiming for 2.5 million visitors in five years.

It is also aiming to double foreign exchange earnings from tourism to $7.7 billion a year not including the amount spent on air fares.

The Tourism Board has budgeted between $20 million and $30 million a year for its campaign over the next few years.

Board sources said yesterday the cost was significantly less than for ideas proposed by the original agency chosen for the job, Saatchi & Saatchi. These included live billboards, suggested using television star Lucy Lawless, and were based around the theme "The Edge."

Many in the industry felt they had been too radical and too hard to link to their own businesses.

The chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association, Glenys Coughlan, said the industry would have liked to have had more input into the new campaign, which she described as "fairly conventional." But it was now up to the industry to make it work.

"Saatchi & Saatchi's live billboard would have been a good idea to launch the campaign, but after a while it would have become just wallpaper. What they've settled on is tried and true."

Tom Dery, the executive chairman of the replacement agency, M & C Saatchi, said the concept of a "safe" campaign did not enter his thoughts.

"All I can think about is doing the job required. It's on target, on time, on the brief, and it will do the job on what was a very small budget."