Stitching up Wellington promotion

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ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post

THREADING TOGETHER: Hana Miller and Jacob Perkins have been sewing scenery to promote the tourism benefits of the Wellington region to Australian tourists.

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Positively Wellington Tourism has stitched together a $2 million campaign to export the capital city to Australia and boost tourism by 7 per cent.

Wellington artisans Hana Miller and Jacob Perkins have spent the past two weeks painstakingly stitching 10 props for the new advertising campaign, which showcases the region from Marlborough to Taranaki through animated needlework.

"Fabric and miniatures make for lots of very finicky work," Mr Perkins said.

The duo, formerly costume makers for Cirque du Soleil and Disney, were part of a creative cohort threading the elements of the new campaign together before it goes live in Australia on Sunday.

The multimedia campaign, covering TV, online and cinema, is the first dedicated regional advertising Wellington has done to consumers across the Tasman, and marks a shift in promotional focus.

"It's a ballpark change, it's a completely different campaign," Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks said, comparing it to previous domestic adverts.

The $2m budget, a quarter of which went on producing the ads, was expected to turn in $20 million in new tourism revenue. Overall, Australian tourists spent $279m in the Wellington region, the highest of any international visitor group.

Mr Perks said as the first campaign promoting the region to Australia, it was tailored to give a wide scope to potential tourists, including Wairarapa, Marlborough and Taranaki as accessible through Wellington. "Matching some days in the city and some days in one of our neighbouring regions makes a lot of sense in terms of giving a great holiday."

He said the urban experience as well as the traditional scenic New Zealand holiday was the best mix for Aussies looking for destinations.

He said the hope was that trans-Tasman visitor numbers would increase by 7 per cent, equating to nearly $20m in tourism revenue, but the long-term goal was to boost the profile of regional options to travellers.

The campaign would go live in Australia on Sunday, and last through to the end of June.

Katherine Cordwell of Wellington's Zest Food Tours said the Australian focus worked well for Wellington, where a short break or an urban itinerary as part of a longer trip was all you needed to make the most of the city.

"A lot of Australains are foodies too, so it is a really good market for us." A quarter of the $2b budget went into production while the rest was buying media space in Australia, targeted at the short break and holiday markets.

"Pitching Wellington and the region as a holiday destination is important because that is not really where it has been at in the past," Mr Perks said. "Our opportunity in Wellington is very clearly in Australia to attract more of them and teach them how to spend their money."

Boosting numbers by 7 per cent for the year was a difficult goal but by targeting the advertising he was confident it could be done.

"We have looked at when and where we put the ads into market so we are filling seats that are not already full."

- © Fairfax NZ News