Chinese star power in Tourism NZ campaign

Reuters

STAR POWER: Tourism New Zealand is using Chinese celebrities such as film-maker Lu Chuan to promote New Zealand to the burgeoning Chinese travel market.

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Tourism New Zealand's latest Chinese campaign is taking a new celebrity marketing tack.

The $4.7 million media effort stars Chinese celebrities film-maker Lu Chuan and blogger Hung Huang promoting New Zealand to the burgeoning Chinese travel market.

Inbound Chinese tourist numbers dropped 9 per cent in the year to February, but the Tourism Ministry predicts a 63 per cent increase by 2015, to 183,000 visitors a year.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said that the campaign, to go out through blogs, social media and interactive digital technology, would take New Zealand to the right audiences. "Previous advertising activity in China has been successful in building awareness of New Zealand. "We now need to build on that by telling a more detailed story of what New Zealand can offer Chinese visitors," he said.

"By sharing the experiences of real people – who are well-known and respected by our target market in China – we can fill in the knowledge gaps in the minds of potential visitors."

Mini-travelogues fronted by the two celebrities will make up a large part of the campaign.

They will be funnelled through key digital channels, including social media websites tudou.com and kaixin001.com, the Chinese equivalents of YouTube and Facebook.

Mr Bowler said social media and search marketing allowed direct advertising to the right segment of 384 million internet users in China, and would maximise the value of the marketing spend.

The campaign was timed to coincide with the Shanghai World Expo from May to October.

Tourism Research Institute director Professor Simon Milne said Tourism New Zealand was an innovative marketer, but had to pay attention to the huge role mobile phones paid in China and other emerging markets.

"It is a society that relies a lot more on mobiles to download and get access to information. It will be very important that whatever message is put forward is accessible through that format."

He said simple cellphones and PDA devices dominated Eastern markets, underpinned by huge market competition and low fees for mobile devices, which made them accessible at a range of socio-economic levels and particularly relevant to New Zealand's target demographic.

"There's no question that the young Chinese of mid-30s and even in their 40s are very technology savvy."

Professor Milne said statistics showed the United States ranked far behind China and India in cellphone numbers per head of population.

"There's a lot less PCs sitting at home."

The global buzz about the iPad was not hugely relevant.

He said another departure from the western hemisphere norm was the fact Google had pulled out of China, which meant more research and search engine optimisation was required on other search engines that were popular in China.

Just back from Hong Kong, Professor Milne said the attention being focused on the Shanghai Expo was substantial.

"The exciting thing about that is that most of those people are domestic visitors, not international."

- © Fairfax NZ News