Positively Wellington Tourism Campaign Up for Awards Again

Positively Wellington Tourism’s Spoil Yourself in Wellington domestic marketing campaign has been named a finalist in two AXIS Awards.

The Communication Agencies Association (CAANZ) awards are about recognising creative excellence in advertising creativity. Spoil Yourself is one of two finalists in the ‘Visual craft – effects and cinematography’ section and the soundtrack for the Wellington campaign is one of five finalists in its category.

Positively Wellington Tourism Chief Executive David Perks said the announcement was absolutely positively great news.

“It’s fantastic recognition for both our New Zealand marketing team and our creative partners, Clemenger BBDO.”

Executive Creative Director of Clemenger BBDO, Philip Andrew, says that “the New Zealand Axis Awards recognise excellence in creativity as voted by the country’s top creative directors”.

Spoil Yourself’s central premise is that Wellington has unique gifts for everyone. Whether you fancy fine dining or an international test match, the country’s capital is an ideal destination in which to spoil yourself.

In the past few months the Wellington tourism industry has primarily been bucking a national trend of decline, with domestic visitation seeing the city record good growth in commercial guest nights, despite the recession.

December did see a slight drop off in domestic guest nights. While PWT believes that is due to a spike in numbers in the same month in 2007 for David Beckham’s visit, it could also indicate a delayed impact of the recession, Mr Perks said.

“We’re not waiting to find out. We have brought our second hit of television advertising forward and are back in market now. We’re also revising our advertisement to focus on a stronger call to action centred around the city’s incredible events programme to make sure New Zealanders know they can’t afford not to come to Wellington.”

Positively Wellington Tourism is no stranger to award-winning advertising campaigns. Its Have a Love Affair with Wellington promotion won the Tourism Marketing award and Major Category Winner - Tourism and Transportation Services at the 2006 New Zealand Tourism Awards. The campaign was also a finalist in the AXIS Awards in 2005.

While awards are nice recognition, Positively Wellington Tourism’s priority is delivering success to Wellington, Mr Perks said.

“We will be carrying out formal analysis of the campaign’s delivery in June, but so far indications suggest it has been a tremendous success and a vital component of Wellington’s solid position.”

Notes for editors:

1. Robbers Dog were the film company for the Spoil Yourself television commercial with Liquidstudios providing the soundtrack. Clemenger BBDO are Positively Wellington Tourism’s advertising agency.

2. The visitor sector contributes $1.4 billion in expenditure per annum (an average of $3.8 million per day) and accounts for approximately 10% of Wellington’s regional domestic product.

3. Our little city has more than 8 million visitor nights per year.

4. Wellington’s success story is its domestic visitor market. Wellington has 3.8 million domestic visitor nights per year and visiting New Zealanders contribute $557 million to the city’s economy every year – that’s $1.5 million a day.

5. International guest spend 4.3 million visitor nights and $536 million in Wellington per year.

6. Wellington’s top international visitor market is our dear neighbour Australia. One third of all of our international visitors come from across the ditch. Australians spend 917,000 visitor nights and $152 million in Wellington per year.

ENDS

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