Australians to Find Out There’s No Place Like Wellington

Wellingtonians ‘Absolutely Positively’ love their city, New Zealanders have been invited to ‘Have a Love Affair’ with and spoil themselves in the capital and now Australians are about to find out ‘There’s No Place Like Wellington’.

Positively Wellington Tourism has revealed the new television commercial at the centre of a $2 million multimedia campaign designed to educate Australians about what the region has to offer and inspire them to visit. The television campaign starts in Sydney on Sunday, with online advertising starting the following week and six weeks of cinema advertising launching in April.

“There’s No Place Like Wellington is the product of significant research into both our Australian visitor target market and the tourism messaging they are currently exposed to,” says Positively Wellington Tourism Chief Executive David Perks. “We’ve designed a campaign that will, like Wellington, set itself apart from the rest.”

The television commercial uses a specialised stop frame animation technique to lead viewers around an evolving patchwork that represents the Wellington region’s attractions, quirkiness and creative values.

“The set was handcrafted and then filmed as each creation was unravelled. The commercial is then the result of that filming being played back in reverse,” Mr Perks says.

The campaign is a significant development in Wellington’s tourism industry and is the result of joint venture talks with central government instigated by Mr Perks in February last year.

“This is an exciting development in the marketing of Wellington. We started in the early 90s by focusing on ensuring Wellingtonians absolutely positively believed in their city and the past decade has seen a complete transformation in the way New Zealanders see Wellington. Now we’re taking the story offshore to the Australian consumer.”

The Wellington-led campaign is being carried out in partnership with neighbouring regions Hutt City, Wairarapa, Taranaki and Marlborough, along with airlines, Wellington International Airport, Interislander and Te Papa. The first round of the campaign will run until June.

ENDS

* Q&As follow on page 2
Q & As

What is the $2 million being spent on?
$1.5 million will be spent on media buy (ie: advertising space) and PR, with $500,000 invested in television, cinema and online creative.

Who has paid for it?
The campaign is part of Central Government’s investment in regional joint venture marketing partnerships in Australia. The Government has contributed $1 million to the campaign, which has been matched by a regional collective comprising of Wellington City Council ($500,000), Positively Wellington Tourism ($290,000 redirected from other activities), regional and industry partners ($210,000; comprising of Wellington International Airport, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Interislander, Hutt City Council, Destination Wairarapa, Destination Marlborough and Venture Taranaki).

Who made it?
The campaign has been formulated and directed by the digital and creative teams at Clemenger BBDO Wellington. Three Wellington textile artists have created models for various parts of the campaign and the stop frame animation TVC was produced by Yukfoo Animation.

Are Wellington city residential ratepayers paying for this campaign?
No. Wellington City Council’s funding contributions to Positively Wellington Tourism are sourced from the Downtown Levy – a levy on commercial property owners in the downtown area.

What does the Australian market currently contribute to Wellington’s economy?
Australia is Wellington’s biggest international visitor market and is worth approximately $279 million a year to the region – that’s over $700,000 a day.

How many Australians visit Wellington a year?
206,000 Australians visited the Wellington region last year.

What growth is forecast as a result of the new campaign?
We aim to increase Australian arrivals into Wellington International Airport by 7% in 2010 compared with the year before; that’s 7000 more Australians arriving direct into the capital.

Are Aussies holidaying much right now?
They sure are. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 6.3 million of them departed for overseas in 2009 – an increase of 8.2% on the year before.

Were any animals harmed in the making of the new commercial?
No. They were pulled apart...but it’s ok because they were made from fabric.

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