Tourism New Zealand: 100% MIDDLE-EARTH, 100% PURE NEW ZEALAND

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Sectors & Services

Category: Travel, Tourism & Leisure

Advertiser: TOURISM NEW ZEALAND

Product/Service: 100% MIDDLE-EARTH, 100% PURE NEW ZEALAND

Agency: WHYBIN\TBWA AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND



Managing Partner: Kelly Bennett (Eleven PR)

Developer: Sam Kwan/Patrick Li (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Production Specialist: Andrew Zen/Nigel Mchardy (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Project Manager: Louise Leitch (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Account Director: Stephanie Creasey (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Account Management: Julia Mckee/Lynlee Smith (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Digital Creative Director: Ross Howard (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Director: Darryl Ward (Curious)

Executive Producer: Matt Noonan (Curious)

Producer: Andy Mauger (Curious)

Group Head: Natasja Barclay (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Production Company: Curious (Curious)

Account Director: Mandy Eckford (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Strategist: Hristos Varouhas (Whybin\TBWA Sydney)

Planner: Julie Maciver (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Designer: Chris Lewis/Jonathon Mead (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Art Director: Cece Chu/Craig Brooks/Andy Blood (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Copywriter: Ryan Price/Andy Blood/Tammy Keegan/Lucy Morgan (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Creative Director: Mark Zeman (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland)

Executive Creative Director: Andy Blood/Matty Burton/Dave Bowman (Whybin\TBWA\DAN Auckland, Whybin\TBWA Sydney)



Describe the campaign/entry

New Zealand is a small country on the far side of the world. With a tiny population, and a budget to match, we’ve got a big task on our hands letting everyone know exactly where we are, and what you can do here, and in doing so, making us a must-visit destination. And in 2012 Tourism New Zealand got a once in a decade opportunity to catapult New Zealand into the spotlight thanks to the making of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.



If you’re a fan of Tolkien, then one place is synonymous with Middle-earth, and that is New Zealand. New Zealand is Middle-earth on Earth. Where Gandalf strides, Hobbit’s walk, and Gollum creeps. So this year, we aimed to earn as much media as we could by using our association with all things Middle-earth. Thus, “100% Middle-earth=100% Pure New Zealand was born. A campaign created with the permission and involvement of Sir Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films and Warner Brothers. All our campaign activity needed to live and propagate online, and drive global traffic to our gateway portal newzealand.com, and/or to our travel partners. Our campaign started with an epic online film seeded by ‘Sir Peter’ to his fans, then encompassed rich media, paid display, earned media, PR at many levels and audiences, broadcasting the nation’s weather forecast entirely in Elvish, exclusive online content via a ‘Journey to Middle-earth’ book, and even a Dept of Internal affairs sanctioned ‘Welcome to Middle earth’ passport stamp.



Describe the brief from the client

Make New Zealand a must-visit destination by taking advantage of a once in a decade opportunity of NZ being catapulted into the spotlight thanks to the making of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. So this year, we aimed to earn as much media as we could by using our association with all things Middle-earth.



Results



Sir Peter shared our film with over 650 000 fans. In 3 months, we had close to a million views online. Visits to newzealand.com using campaign related key-words is up 265%. A 16% increase (year on year) of global traffic to newzealand.com. In the first 48 hours of the ‘virtual book’ going live it received 130,000 page views, with an average of 14 book page views per visit. Rich-media film performed above industry standards for ‘interaction’ and engagement. The Weather Forecast in Elvish was reported by the BBC and the Daily Mail. Thousands got their passports stamped, and shared with millions online.



"Following our '100% Middle-earth,100% Pure New Zealand' campaign, the growth we are seeing clearly shows the increased preference to travel to New Zealand. This increase in interest is seen in record traffic to newzealand.com, with one million visits making it the biggest February month on record, up 37.3% on February 2012." Kevin Bowler, TNZ Chief Executive







Execution





‘100% Middle-earth is 100% Pure New Zealand.’ All campaign activity needed to live and propagate online, and drive global traffic to our gateway portal newzealand.com, and/or to our travel partners. Our campaign started with an epic online film seeded by ‘Sir Peter’ to his 650 000 fans, then encompassed rich media, paid display, earned media, PR at many levels (trade, consumer, media, ‘influencers’, stakeholders) and audiences, broadcasting the nation’s weather forecast entirely in Elvish, exclusive online content via a ‘Journey to Middle-earth’ book, and even a Dept of Internal affairs sanctioned ‘Welcome to Middle earth’ passport stamp. The campaign was global and appeared in 47 countries with some parts being tailored to local nuance and need.



The Situation



This was a once in a decade opportunity for Tourism New Zealand to leverage the fact that The Hobbit trilogy was being filmed on New Zealand soil, using NZ expertise, by Sir Peter Jackson. (The production of the three films was made possible through government agreed tax breaks to the overseas backers.) Tourism New Zealand is a taxpayer funded, government backed entity that reports directly to the Minister for Tourism - a post held by the Prime Minister Mr John Key. TNZ carries the huge responsibility of representing the Nation to the world, and 4,000,000 kiwis, being stakeholders, would be very vocal in their opinion about the campaign. It was a high stakes investment.



The Strategy

If you’re a fan of Tolkien, then one place is synonymous with Middle-earth, and that is New Zealand. New Zealand is Middle-earth on Earth. Where Gandalf strides, Hobbit’s walk, and Gollum creeps. So this year, we aimed to earn as much media as we could by using our association with all things Middle-earth. Thus, “100% Middle-earth=100% Pure New Zealand was born. Justin Watson, TNZ GM Marketing Communications: "This was definitely a challenging brief because the end result needed to deliver a tourism message that leveraged the movies but was not about promoting the movies. The team rose to the challenge and have developed a strong and compelling idea around Middle-earth and an execution that makes you proud to be a New Zealander."