'Ho hum' at home but big sell abroad

BY DITA DE BONI

It's a blustery Wellington evening, and reps from the Tourism Board and M&C Saatchi Wellington sit huddled around a boardroom table, snacking on greasies, tossing out ideas and laughing about a rival's stymied "Xena" campaign.

At the end of that lengthy tete-a-tete, they've devised a word that encapsulates the direction the "100% Pure New Zealand" campaign will take. Authentic. They chant it, mantra-like, with increasing urgency until reaching that spiritually climactic place where client and agency come together in harmonious union and all that's left to do is smile blissfully across at each other over the chippie wrappers.

Call it authentic, authenticity or authentic-ness, it's the buzzword for the New Zealand experience and rolls sweetly off the tongue of everyone from the Tourism Board's receptionist to the janitor at M&C Saatchi to the Japanese tourist who fumbles for an esoteric description of the locals at the Eketahuna pub.

This week M&C Saatchi and the Tourism Board rolled out the second phase of their "100% Pure New Zealand" marketing campaign, hoping to further expand on stills seen by almost 70 million people, featured in 189 publications and screened more than 26,000 times overseas.

To complement the media placements, 1000 journalists have been hosted through the nation's tourist hotspots, $6.4 million has been invested by more than 100 tourism industry partners in 13 countries and 500,000 users have clicked on to purenz.com in the last seven months.

Around 13 per cent of the allocated budget has been used on international television placement, including the Discovery Channel in the United States and Asia.

Costing a total of $41 million to market internationally, the campaign was given the big "ho hum" by industry commentators in the domestic market when it was launched in Queenstown last year, but Tourism Board chief executive George Hickton says the campaign is working.

"We can't please everyone, and anyhow we're not trying to appeal to the domestic market," he says. "Ultimately we had to take a direction that was supported by research, and the messages we've been getting back from overseas support our decision.

"We hear two things consistently: that New Zealand tourism has finally started to get serious and please don't change. So we've simply broadened our campaign line."

The second-wave execution expands on tried and true shots of the hongi, dirty hiking boots and majestic mountain tops with slightly more cerebral depictions of a piano on a beach (alluding to Jane Campion's The Piano), a clown entertaining passers-by on a Wellington street (a reference to the late summer Festival of the Arts) and a waka on Lake Rotoiti.

There are now 20 different shots of "authentic" New Zealand shown around the world. Mr Hickton reports the hongi shot remains very popular in Germany, the Japanese are interested in Christchurch and "sheep" shots, and the new, more regionally and culturally specific executions appeal to our largest tourist population, Australians.

Whether based on "100%" or not, tourism has definitely gained steam over the summer - undoubtedly boosted by high-profile events such as the America's Cup, Apec and the millennium. Statistics from the year to September 1999 showed a 19 per increase in foreign exchange earnings from tourists to $3.7 billion.

Figures released yesterday show a further increase in February 2000, when 192,000 international visitors spent on average $2700 each in that month alone.

"International markets have, for some time, been looking to see where New Zealand is going in terms of tourists. We used to have a different campaign in every country - this is the first time we've really had consistency in our marketing approach," Mr Hickton says.

"Research has shown that the experience people have in New Zealand is enriching and invigorating. There's an ease to get around here, a sense of adventure about the place, and an authenticity of experience. Very authentic - a totally natural environment."

Mr Hickton says the second phases of the campaign address criticisms fired after the initial launch that the campaign images were too "cold" ("shot in the middle of winter," he counters) and, apart from the hongi shot, did not capture enough of New Zealand's multicultural side.

"We decided to cover 'warmer' areas this time, as well as more effectively bringing in the Maori cultural element, because it's been done a certain way over the years but we have to move forward with it ... This time, it's a better story."

The international account director for M&C Saatchi, Philip O'Neill, says the creative always set out to reflect the relevant parts of New Zealand's multicultural society as "we are seen as leading the world in being able to draw cultures together."

While he agrees Maori are in general portrayed "traditionally," he says unlike the above-line branding featuring hongi and waka, other materials developed by the agency encompass Maori elements into overall structure and design, like kowhaiwhai patterns on materials and an appeal to Maori myth and legend.

"The hongi ad is more about communicating the unconditional hospitality a huge number of Maori groups, and indeed New Zealand in general, is known for.

"Tourists to New Zealand talk about how invigorating New Zealand is, how they've had an injection of authenticity, and we work towards communicating that," he says.

"But we have several more phases to roll out - another four to five years worth of campaigning, and different things that we want to bring to life. And we are learning all the time, and trying to get better with every execution."

Both Mr Hickton and Mr O'Neill bristle at the suggestion that the 100% pure campaign is a "safe" one both in concept and execution, a perception that lingers even after phase two's subtle shift in emphasis.

New Zealand's campaign is particularly strong compared with heavy tourism players like South Africa, says Mr O'Neill, and Mr Hickton points out that The Piano promotion won the Australian magazine's creative excellence award for February.

Locally, opinion on the campaign's direction is in-sync with original perceptions. Parnell-based Generator agency managing director Andrew Stone says the launch campaign was "workmanlike but not exciting from a New Zealander's perspective, but I can imagine its relevance and power to the overseas adventure tourist market."

"Having said that, there's no doubt it lacked the excitement of the Saatchi idea."

On the second phases of "100% Pure," Mr Stone echoes the verdict of several industry sources.

"[It] seems to be moving away from the singleminded thought that was being developed, [but] I would question whether, as a long-term branding campaign, it's not premature to be introducing another definition of what New Zealand offers - especially as, if a tourist was after culture, I'd imagine it's a hard sell to get them to believe New Zealand is the place to come to."