Tourism New Zealand reconnects the nation to the world with a 'Pure Promise'

Tourism New Zealand has released its first work to the world, Pure Promise, since the COVID-19 lockdowns started rolling out across the globe.

The campaign, which sits under the longstanding 100% Pure New Zealand brand, focuses on reconnecting with friends and past visitors around the world to share a reflection on what is important in life, as early signs of recovery begin to emerge for the island nation.

Despite borders remaining closed to international visitors for now, the team behind New Zealand’s tourism efforts felt it was an appropriate time to share a message of reflection, hope and aroha (love) as they begin to recover and look forward to welcoming visitors again in the future when safe to do so.

Tourism New Zealand general manager Andrew Waddel told AdNews it was important to get time, context and messaging right for the campaign.

“We wanted to bring through the 'Pure' at the right time, which allowed us to talk more openly around how we were feeling about things as a country, while also picking up on strong recovery indicators that are coming from New Zealand and Australia,” Waddel says.

“We wanted to share a positive message of hope, and with it a look to the future.”

The video, created with creative agency Special Group New Zealand, reinforces deeply important values embedded in the New Zealand way of life from its unique Māori culture.

Values such as kaitiakitanga (protecting and caring for people and place), manaaki manuhiri (welcoming and looking after all visitors) and whanaungatanga (treating others like family) are implicit in the storytelling.

“We take great pride in welcoming Australian visitors to our place and showing them the Manaakitanga we have become known for. This is very important to us,” Waddel says.

“We are now taken back to a time of simplicity and this gives us the opportunity to reflect on what’s important and what we hope to see for the future.”

Weaving together some older shots from its extensive content libray, with new footage of a woman speaking to her father on a video call, Waddel says the campaign tells an emotive story of connection that is representative of the one New Zealand has with its visitors.

Built on the messaging “he waka eke noa”, which translates to “we’re all in this together”, Waddel says notions of connection and solidarity were some of the key insights Tourism New Zealand and Special Group discovered were important to consumers at the moment.

“That idea of solidarity is interesting in the relationship between New Zealand and Australia,” Waddel says.

“We've often joked about the sibling rivalry that you get between the two countries. That's evolving now from a sibling rivalry to a feeling of solidarity.

“It's really important that brands, particularly country brands, are able to elevate not only themselves but also others around them.

“So for New Zealand and Australia, there's not a desire to put one country ahead of the other or stand on top of one another. It's about being together and both countries rising together.”

Over the last couple of months, Tourism New Zealand has been quiet on the marketing like many others in the tourism industry, but the brand is now starting to bring back its Good Morning World series as restrictions start to ease.

Waddel says loyal fans of the year-long series, and one of its high performing campaigns to date, have been excited to see the return of Kiwis saying good morning to the world each day.

With talks of a Trans-Tasman travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand, he says the tourism body is also working to be prepared once the borders open up.

Australia represents about 40% of all international arrivals for the nation and around 24% of visitor spend.

“We're putting a lot into place to be ready at the earliest opportunity, and then we can just adjust around that,” he says.

“We'll be ready for some activity to bring to life from that. Hopefully not just connection and solidarity with Australia, but also bring back that cheek and humor that we know and love around the sibling rivalry between the two nations.”

Ahead of international borders opening, Tourism New Zealand has been focused on encouraging New Zealanders to explore their own backyard with a new campaign launched last week.

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