Results and Effectiveness

Our on-site survey revealed that over 80% of those who engaged now consider themselves kiwi lovers. People engaged with our media platform; over 2,580 hours of our video webisodes were watched (a 50% completion rate) and dwell time was 4x longer than the NineMSN travel average. The campaign as a whole has delivered an impressive ROI of 1:4. The performance of conversion to ticket purchase increased by 237% versus our activity last year. We not only successfully changed the minds of Kiwi sceptics across Australia but turned attitude change into actual bums on Air New Zealand seats.

Creative Execution

In partnership with Nine Entertainment Company we created branded a destination on NineMSN Travel called ‘Kiwi Sceptics’, filled with perception busting content ranging from City Guides, Travel tips, video Travel diaries, and even an Air NZ booking widget. Targeted rich media banners, pre-rolls, press & online advertorials, editorial integration, search and press copy ensured our audiences couldn’t escape our perception busting content. We created a bespoke cookie pool of people who had interacted with our hub to retarget them with relevant up to date offers from Air New Zealand. This meant we could continually optimise our activity to maximise conversion. The creative strategy was about using real people to change real altitudinal barriers. We identified four personas that embodied some of the key barriers. Host then produced 5 minute webisodes that formed the cornerstone of our hub and tackled these barriers head on.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

When you think of New Zealand most people think of sheep, rolling hills, whales, bungee jumping and breathtaking views. Not negative associations but not for everyone. It’s a place 52% of Aussies actively consider visiting at some point… just not right now. Air New Zealand wanted to prove to Aussies that New Zealand is a must visit destination with something to offer even the most hardened Kiwi sceptics. Our communication task was twofold: 1) Use credible media environments and content to change existing attitudes towards New Zealand 2) get more bums on Air New Zealand seats. Our strategy was simple; across the moments when our consumers were ‘travel dreaming’ we would hit them with relevant and surprising content to disrupt their preconceptions. We would then retarget them with the right retail message to convert attitude change into sales.