Keeping with the 100% Pure message

Tourism New Zealand's new boss Kevin Bowler is fully aware of the importance of the country's image overseas, writes Nick Churchouse .

The incoming chief executive of Tourism New Zealand lives in Auckland, with his wife and two children. Mr Bowler has been around fast- moving consumer goods for his whole career, now completing his tenure as chief executive of Yahoo!Xtra.

A former Telecom executive heading consumer and mobile marketing, he has filled similar roles in New Zealand and Britain pushing drinks to chocolate and advertising. Fortunately for the New Zealand Cycle Trail, tourism's latest big thinking idea, he is also a keen cyclist, experienced on tarmac and offroad routes.

"I'm doing Round Taupo [cycle challenge] this year, which is all about improving my personal best time. But my passion is more in mountainbiking."

Taking in the recent tourism leaders' symposium as a quiet observer at departing chief executive George Hickton's table, a number of industry heavyweights in the room were keen to know who the new guy was. Cue countless corner conversations, lots of hand shaking and, no doubt, some hard listening from Mr Bowler, who does not start in the new job until January.

Chief executive of Yahoo!Xtra, and with telecommunications, dairy product marketing and advertising sprinkled through his resume, he admits he is about as foreign to the industry elite as their jetsetting clients.

"I'd definitely position myself as someone who is looking from the outside in, with lots to learn. But as someone who is keenly interested in New Zealand, I've always looked at marketing it through tourism as something of interest."

With New Zealand's largest foreign exchange earning industry regarding him as something of interest, his face will be well known before long.

Fronting up as the man behind the message Kiwi tourism sells to the world, his voice and his take on the plethora of cliches a tourism boss is required to know offhand will be well known too. It is not a role he is accustomed to.

"I'll be taking that very seriously, it's a big responsibility. I'm realistic about how important getting that right is."

The public persona aside, he sees strong synergies between his experience in the internet realm and his future in the tourism sector.

"They are very similar. You have massive big publishers at one end and a long tail of small publishers and other business associated with the web at the other end. I've got a little bit of insight into balancing those needs."

With Mr Hickton's legacy, the 100% Pure brand that started when he did, murmurs are starting to be heard about where the national tagline can go from here. Consistent data and anecdotes from overseas show that the brand is still working and not showing signs of fatigue.

Tourism veteran strategist Anna Pollock told the symposium to cherish the message of 100% Pure and dispel thoughts of changing it. Too many good brands get changed for the sake of it, she said.

Mr Bowler will be squarely tasked with setting the course for the next decade of marketing New Zealand with his own marketing nous and experience behind some big consumer brands.

What form that takes he will not say, and most probably does not know yet. Marketing lines and position statements need to change over time, he says, but through evolution not impatience.

"One of the real strengths here is that it [100% Pure] has been consistently used. I'd be surprised if it needed to change. Maybe it's a case of adding another layer of meaning into the line, building on it, but certainly not moving away from it."

One thing that will change is the marketing mix. Mr Bowler's online expertise undoubtedly played a huge part in his selection for the chief executive role, and he admits he sees room to improve.

"One of the really powerful things about the web is search-based marketing. We can see someone in a particular geography is searching for something or looking for information. We can predict fairly accurately if they are thinking about buying something. That's enables us to position those messages accurately to the right person at the right time."

Acknowledging the diversity of visitors is paramount, with provincial tourists as important as the main trunk line. Mr Bowler says a technology focus will allow New Zealand to market itself smarter.

"There's the opportunity to move away from fairly bland target audiences based on age groups and life stages to identifying individuals who are planning to travel and targeting them with messages, and hopefully making them come to New Zealand."

Mr Bowler is not prepared to put his plans on the table yet, but admits he has been thinking a lot about the marketing mix New Zealand uses.

"Since I've been much more focused on this area, one thing I will say is we definitely need a long term view. We have been through the worst recession we've had in a long time, and many parts of the world are starting to emerge from that. I'm optimistic looking into the next year and the year after."

Optimism is a given for the national cheerleader job and the brand Mr Bowler is inheriting, while successful and the envy of many, is likely to be under continual siege as the environment moves steadily to the fore of travellers' considerations.

The practice underpinning the 100% Pure brand is improving all the time, but there are some areas that lack solutions yet. One area under scrutiny, the Rotorua lakes, is also a favourite tourist haunt for Mr Bowler and his family.

Labelled an "environmental disaster", the effect of years of increased human impacts on the 12 lakes has attracted concerted efforts to clean them up, but the area remains an illustration of how past environmental oversights could erode any credible performance under the 100% Pure brand.

Mr Bowler admits nothing is perfect.

"It is almost impossible to attain a standard of 100 per cent pure, but if you think about it in a relative sense, you get back to New Zealand and it is the place that would most live up to that line.

"It's a real shame when you see Lake Rotoiti and the [algal] bloom that is happening there. It is also a challenge to operators, about how to exist as greenly as they realistically can."

THE pressure to deliver on New Zealand's core message is going to come quickly for the new chief executive, and he knows how crucial getting it right for the 2011 Rugby World Cup is.

For a marketing man, the opportunity is tantalising. "What are the memories and messages that people who come to the World Cup going to take home? They are our most powerful marketing weapon for the next three or four years."

Beyond the big event, rebuilding the recession-hit travel trade and revamping emergency strategies put in place to boost visitor numbers short term is a whole new game plan.

Mr Bowler says he is not about to accept the status quo. Whether the current focus on easy pickings from across the Tasman is right for the long term or which parts of Asia hold the most potential for high profit visitors are questions he wants to ask afresh.

"We are a pretty small brand in a world sense; it's actually quite a challenge targeting the money to where it will get the biggest return. Those are questions I want to dive into early on."

Until mid-January, bar a few key introductions with the industry, the only tourism Mr Bowler will have to dive into is his lakeside Christmas holiday.

He wonders if three weeks with his family will feel different now his job is all about promoting travel and leisure in the very places he likes to get away.

"But if sitting on my boat on the western shores of Lake Taupo is work, then this is the sort of job I'm very keen to do."

- © Fairfax NZ News