July 1999. The Millennium Hotel ballroom, Queenstown. New Zealand tourism was still reeling from the shock of the Asian financial crisis. Locally, scandals about advertising agencies and the Prime Minister had all but paralysed leadership of the sector.500 top industry delegates had gathered to see the launch of Tourism New Zealand’s (then New Zealand Tourism Board) new campaign. I had been a member of the selection panel for a desperately needed campaign breakthrough. Now was our moment of truth. The freezing temperature of the alpine resort town in winter was a good metaphore for the atmosphere of the industry.
Delegates listened politely to video clips of visitors describing New Zealand as the most beautiful place they had ever visited. The Fourmyula’s New Zealand pop classic Nature emphasised the point. Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton outlined that in a cluttered media world our campaign needed to focus single-mindedly on our unique selling proposition for cut-through. Then Neil Finn himself stepped onstage and gave an unplugged rendition of his hit Don’t Dream It’s Over which was the original campaign soundtrack.
The strategy for 100% Pure New Zealand was about simplicity. Focus on what we did best. Forget the rest. We called it our “single-minded proposition”. The global tourism market is huge and we only wanted a little bit of it. The high value visitor bit, enough of whom are motivated by a world-class natural environment and the chance to play in it.
100% Pure New Zealand has been strongly associated from the word Go with our natural dimension. And it is a natural extension and elegant expression of the clean and green space we have long occupied in the minds of global consumers.
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Tags: 100% Pure New Zealand, clean & green, clean & green NZ, Clean and Green, clean and green New Zealand, clean and green NZ, Kaitiakitanga
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