Forget Pure NZ, now it's just you

The '100 per cent Pure you' slogan is being launched today in Australia. Photo / Supplied

It's been 12 years, but New Zealand is no longer 100 per cent Pure.

From today, the entire nation is being branded as part of an $85 million a year marketing campaign - now, it's all about "you".

The country isn't pure - "you" are. And according to Tourism New Zealand, "you" are one of 80 million international tourists actively considering visiting New Zealand.

The "100 per cent Pure you" slogan is being launched today in Australia with television adverts and internet banners. From there, it will be rolled out in North America, Europe and Asia.

But critics say it pollutes the 100 per cent Pure message - that it's a tacit admission New Zealand isn't so clean, and isn't so green.

The relentlessly upbeat TV adverts focus on the "feelings" of tourists: a young woman jet-boating ("It had blown every cobweb out of my head"); a dad taking his son tramping ("A memory that would be his forever"); and a young woman horse-riding ("The unexpected things that make a holiday great").

Stephanie Lillis, a 25-year-old Melbourne actor, is better-known in Australia for advertising Vegemite. But last month, Tourism NZ paid her $7500 plus expenses to spend four days filming the jetboat ad on the Dart River, near Queenstown.

She agreed that it was time for New Zealand to move on from marketing itself on the strength of beautiful Lord of the Rings-style mountains.

"Your landscape has so much to offer - but there's only so long that can last for," she said.

"You need a reason to pull Australians over there, because if we just want to see beautiful mountains we can go anywhere in the world."

The Government boosted Tourism NZ's international marketing budget by $20m last financial year and $30m this year, taking it to a total $63m.

Topped up by $5m from regional tourism organisations, the agency was able to spend $10m on marketing in Australia.

It also expanded the 100 per cent Pure campaign into China, the source of 100,000 tourists last year.

Tourism NZ boss Kevin Bowler says the new campaign will benefit New Zealand's tourism industry by focusing on more than landscapes, instead highlighting the many individual experiences on offer.

In November, "New Zealand" was ranked the third strongest country brand in the world by FutureBrand's Country Brand Index, up one place from the previous year and ahead of the USA.

An international study commissioned by Tourism NZ last year showed people overseas knew New Zealand was beautiful - they just didn't know what to do there.

The agency's general manager for marketing, Justin Watson, said the country's beautiful scenery and environment would remain "a vital part of the story as the backdrop" - just no longer the focus.

"The setting is still important but we just put more focus on the experience," said Watson.

University of Auckland marketing lecturer Tom Agee said the campaign seemed generally strong, but he did not believe the 100 per cent Pure message had got through yet in big overseas markets like the United States.

And communications expert Nigel Keats, the former OMD ad agency boss, expressed concern that Tourism NZ was trying to "shift the focus away from New Zealand, as a country that isn't always 100 per cent Pure" instead just promising consumers a good time.

He said the agency should try innovative promotions like those employed by Australian tourism authorities: the Aussies ran a competition to hire a caretaker for Hamilton Island ("the best job in the world"), then last month brought Oprah Winfrey to Sydney Opera House.