2020 has been a devastating year for the international tourism industry. The pandemic has closed international borders and tourism as we know it is on hold.

With New Zealand the #1 outbound destination for Aussie travellers, we had a very real responsibility to keep travellers connected to our people and place while international borders remained closed. We also had an adventure starved audience looking for entertainment and adventure.

Pre Covid, we also faced a unique challenge. The 100% Pure New Zealand brand was facing increasing pressure from up-and-coming destinations such as Japan, and the locally trending options like South Australia and Tasmania which were quickly rising on travellers’ preference lists.

We had to defend our #1 position, increase brand preference and keep New Zealand top of mind in a locked down world.

Gaming was already the #1 form of digital entertainment in Australia* – lockdown saw gaming and game-streaming skyrocket by 75%**. Our research also showed that gamers have a lot in common with travellers – exploration, connection, adventure.

So, we decided to market the entire country like a video game, which informed every media decision we made. We launched with an hour-long livestream on Twitch, our “gamer walkthrough” showcased the best of New Zealand, while allowing live interaction with followers.

The same asset also lived on YouTube, the home of gaming walkthroughs.

But no game launch would be complete without teasers and trailer films, digital banners and in-app mobile game ads, all of which were placed in gaming media channels and featured real gamers’ reviews.

All media drove future travellers to the PLAY NZ immersive hub, on mobile and desktop, allowing exploration of our 18x VR180° quest films.

We set out to address gamers in their context by inviting them to play New Zealand in a new way - in a social-first context.

Our media strategy was simple; behave like a real “new game release” by showing up in gaming channels and social media platforms, before encouraging people to PLAY NZ online on our website, and eventually to travel in real life when our borders reopen.

This allowed us to target a super-engaged gaming audience

and the adventure-deprived travel audience at the same time.

The media strategy sought to engage audiences in an active way, rather than the passive “dream now, travel later” approach our competitors were taking. This allowed us to pull consumers into our world and show them a whole new side to New Zealand.

To achieve this we partnered with Twitch, and Australian gaming heavyweight Loserfruit. She teased the content on her social platforms prelaunch, then "played" the country live to her 4.7 million-strong audience while they interacted with her live, for over an hour.

The 9-minute “gamer walkthrough” was housed on YouTube and showcased unique experiences that set New Zealand apart from other destinations, sharing New Zealand’s culture, people and places.

We continued to mimic a real game launch by using game teasers and trailers, digital banners and in-app ads in gaming media channels featuring real gamers’ reviews. The campaign garnered a wealth of interest across online gaming publications, as well as mainstream social channels (Facebook, Instagram & TikTok) – engaging a broader demographic.

Then we drove future travellers to the PLAYNZ immersive entertainment hub where they were met with 18xVR180° films aimed at inspiring future itineraries for when the borders officially reopen.

Intent to visit New Zealand post lockdown increased by +387%* and we maintained our #1 position as the preferred destination for Aussie travellers**.

Our average video view through rate was +129% higher than other Aussie YouTube advertisers and +97% higher than our previous campaigns. That's with a 9+ minute film.

Though the campaign is still live, we’ve already seen a shift in our brand metrics with a 53% lift in ad recall and 10% lift in favourability.

Campaign engagement is high; reaching over 100 million people. Our films already have over 15 million views.

PR coverage has a universally positive sentiment with 150+ unique earned articles. The live Twitch launch reached thousands of die-hard gamers and our film has since reached over 3.5 million.

Finally, we’ve achieved an average website dwell time of over 9 minutes (280% above benchmark) and a 37% increase in user interaction on our website content.