Tourism's postcard from the Edge

By Karyn Scherer

Between the lines

It is a little-known fact that many of the brains behind the Tourism Board's new campaign to sell New Zealand overseas are actually Australian.

While almost everyone must now be aware of the turmoil the board has gone through over the past year, the New Zealand arm of the advertising agency chosen to sell its message, M&C Saatchi, has undergone its own quiet revolution - it is now full of Australian accents.

But those who feared an Ocker sabotage of the board's first global marketing campaign would do well to remember the truism that distance often offers the best perspective.

The new campaign features gorgeous images of whales, mountains, beaches and other pretty scenes, underneath the phrase "100% Pure New Zealand". So far, reaction among tourism operators has been mixed. While some love it, others are concerned it includes too many "cold" images, not enough Maori culture, and has too much emphasis on the South Island. The most common complaint is that it is just too predictable.

In fact, using the phrase "100% Pure" is a rather brave move, given that someone somewhere is likely to challenge such a bold assertion before too long. Across the ditch, they are probably already working on something 100% Puerile.

But was Saatchi & Saatchi's original idea of selling New Zealand as "The Edge" any better? It has to be said that emphasising New Zealand as a destination on the edge of the world had merit, not least because it offers travellers something few other countries can match.

And Kevin Roberts is right. We do need a new flag. And Air New Zealand planes would look fabulous in black and white. But New Zealand's own identity crisis is a slightly different issue from what brings tourists to this country. Using Lucy Lawless to lure holidaymakers to Aotearoa was not one of the agency's more inspired ideas. And while a live billboard would have had novelty value, it's questionable just how long it would have remained a novelty.

There were concerns the Saatchi & Saatchi campaign focused too heavily on raising awareness of New Zealand, when awareness of our existence is already surprisingly high. And tourism operators had great difficulty understanding how Saatchi & Saatchi's ideas could be integrated into their own marketing plans.

The fact remains that most people holiday here because it's stunningly beautiful, it's not too crowded, and the natives are friendly. There is also the feeling that in a world in which artifice is all too common, we remain authentic. As postcards go, the new campaign M&C Saatchi has come up with is unlikely to win any awards. But award-winning campaigns are not necessarily those that sell the most product.

It's a lesson the Tourism Board finally appears to have learned - in the hardest possible way.