Dave Mollard’s Change is Constant: Stick to our knitting when marketing Manawatū

CEDA has been doing some major performance updates around the region, including a "complete refresh of the user experience around Palmy city". Photo / Supplied

OPINION:

Manawatū 2.0 is the latest attempt by our marketing gurus at Central Economic Development Agency to promote our rohē to tourists wanting to see a different part of the motu. I think the 2.0 refers to the follow-up to the ironic but very awkward “Palmy, famous for being boring” campaign of last year.

The “boring campaign” went down like a Russian warship in the Black Sea. In an attempt to banish that misadventure from the minds of the millions of tourists who were considering venturing to our backyard, we have put a newer version, with less cringe and more quirk.

Unfortunately, the scent of embarrassment and an inferiority complex still permeates this reboot. It’s in the tone of the presenter and in the subtitle “heaps better than version 1″. The underlying message I received was “we are now doing things better”, which immediately prompted my thoughts to “how bad was it before?”.

Please don’t get me wrong, I choose to live in Papaioea because I love this city and the region it sits in. I love our river, our community, our mountains and even our rugby teams. But I’m not blind to the fact that almost every other region in our Aotearoa has better natural resources to inspire visitors.

2.0 features mountain biking, yet ask any downhiller where the mecca is and Rotorua will be one of the first names they call out. The same with rafting where the Tongariro or the Shotover is iconic. The video also features dining, and yes we have some great options here but so does everyone else in this gastronomic paradise.

Our region is a 3.5 at best on Tripadvisor while most regions in Aotearoa are 5. Still, an Aotearoa 3.5 is equal to a five in every other nation but judging by the subtle humour of 2.0, it is pitched directly at the notoriously tight-walleted domestic market rather than the bigger-spending tribes from across the sea. Let’s look at ourselves in the mirror and be honest, we are not the most desired scenic destination, so why try to compete with Rotovegas, Raglan or Ruapehu? Let’s focus on what we are good at, and most of that revolves around our location.

We are great for sports tournaments and trade conferences. We excel at supporting our military and we hold the lower North Island together with our distribution hubs. We have an above-average transport network with trains, planes and automobiles having easy access to every other part of our country. Let’s stick to our knitting and invest our resources into the areas we know we are better at than Nelson, New Plymouth, Napier and Naenae – being easy to get to!

Palmy “less than five hours from everywhere”.

Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.