Tourism NZ launches locals-driven marketing campaign with daily sunrise welcome

Tourism New Zealand has launched a new brand marketing campaign, ‘100% Pure Welcome – 100% Pure New Zealand’ with a sunrise welcome from citizens every day for 365 days as part of the new initiative. 

The 100% Pure Welcome campaign will see 300 New Zealanders share a ‘Good Morning World’ welcome message from their sunrise every day for the next year. The aim is to highlight New Zealand as a unique travel destination welcoming people, stunning landscapes and variety of things to do. The series is set in picturesque spots and also highlights the country's position of being first in the world to see the sun.

“100% Pure New Zealand and 100% Pure Welcome campaign taps into a deep and true NZ insight, and visitor insight," general manager Australia, Tourism New Zealand, Andrew Waddel, told CMO. "The New Zealand insight is about the underpinning of Maori culture and whānau [family], which is underpinned by the Māori concept of manaakitanga, creating deep connections between people, extending hospitality, care and respect.

"And what we find when visitors come to NZ is while they might arrive as strangers, they leave as family or whānau. It’s this warm welcome that has been the driver behind this work,” .

The series launches with a feature film starring eight-year-old Parearau and one of her elders, Hinetu,
standing together to witness the beauty of the world’s first sunrise atop sacred Maunga
[mountain] Hikurangi in Gisborne. The mountain is one of the first places in the world to see the
sunrise.

In marketing terms, there's a content series that will bring that to life in our marketing channels, Waddel said.

"We've launched this campaign as a global gesture of welcome from Kiwis. It's Kiwis who front the campaign from across the country and they share their good morning world welcome from their very own sunrise," he continued.

The other welcome messages to be shared with the world include an adventure-seeking Southlander waking up with a canyon swing, a wannabe hobbit, a shoulder-nibbling horse, a group of teenagers in Northland giving lessons for an early morning jetty jump and a very enthusiastic parasailer.

The 100% Pure Welcome initiative is a multi-format, multi-channel campaign rolling out across all of Tourism New Zealand’s key markets, with Australia the first in the global campaign. It incorporates television, cinema, out-of-home, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, as well as Tourism New Zealand’s digital and social channels. The tourism body is also inviting others to capture and share their good morning to amplify the message and the power of the campaign.

"We have the ability to bring this to life with user-generated content asking Kiwis and visitor to capture themselves in a location with a good morning and a wish to start the day of well. It's a real opportunity to grow beyond one thing each day," Waddel said. "It's also something our partners, like Air New Zealand, can take on and carry forward."

The 100% Pure Welcome is the latest iteration in the longstanding 100% Pure New Zealand campaign, which has evolved over the past two decades to become a powerful asset and highly recognisable tourism brand. The 100% Pure Welcome and 100% Pure New Zealand campaign combines the power of legacy branding with the ability to adapt for new campaigns that tap into cultural, tourist or national trends, conversations and movements, Waddel said. 

"The brand itself has stood the test of time representing the country, people and place of New Zealand. It's evolved with new campaigns that have tapped into changing sentiment, cultural zeitgeist, whatever that might be. And we've got some great examples of when and how it's pivoted to be relevant, not just to New Zealand but also to the audience its talking to," he said.

These include the '100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand’ Lord of the Rings promotion; ‘100% Pure Choice’ tagline used when same-sex marriage became legalised in New Zealand; and '100% Pure New Australia-Land' used earlier this year to embrace the unity of the two nations.

Tourism New Zealand aims to bring multi-faceted campaigns to the market with all the important ingredients for them to be both relevant and deeply linked to the country itself. 

"Any campaign is ensuring it's relevant and sets the purpose for the future. I'm excited by this and where we're positioned for the future, for the next 20 years, to be about place, people and how people interact in the place, socially, culturally, environmentally," Waddel said.

On a broader level, the tourism marketing is informed by the country's Maori culture, which for Waddel, is vital to authenticity and purpose. In addition, Tourism New Zealand is taking an increasing role in guiding visitor behaviour through initiatives like Tiaki – Care for New Zealand, responsible camping and driver safety campaigns.

"It aligns with Tiaki which is about care for the country, hospitality, respect of people and guardianship of the environment. 100% Pure Welcome and Tiaki Promise are effectively both based on Maori principles," Waddel added. "It's really where destination brands and, in particular New Zealand, is going."

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