We set up an NZdronie station at key locations on New Zealand’s best ski slopes. Our goal was to bring to life the beauty and exhilaration of the local slopes by capturing it on video. We encouraged travellers to share their NZdronie, with daily prizes awarded to the best ones.

Over 150,000 Australians visited New Zealand last winter. However, Tourism New Zealand has struggled to target the youth market.

Our brief was to encourage young Australian travellers to be advocates for the New Zealand South Island snow season. We needed to increase the number of visitors to newzealand.com.

The campaign had a total reach of over 405.5 million with a social reach of over 36 million across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. There were over 124,000 visits to the ski hub on newzealand.com.

We garnered nearly 90 pieces of earned editorial coverage, across international news in titles such as the Daily Mail, Mashable, Telegraph and Huffington Post, and News Corp, mX, Yahoo and Pedestrian TV in Australia, creating a possible 369 million opportunities to see the campaign.

And, most rewarding, was the 7% increase in holiday arrivals across both Queenstown and Christchurch.

Knowing that current travellers to New Zealand rely on their mobile to stay in touch with friends and family, we wanted an idea that tapped into their normal behaviour and allowed those travellers to share the beauty of the country with their networks.

NZdronie is a selfie, shot with a drone, which captures the landscape while promoting New Zealand instantaneously.

A Phantom II DJI drone fitted with a GoPro Hero 3+ camera, along with an operator, travelled to ski fields and places of interest for the two months of ski season. We covered the South Island, including Coronet Peak, Cardrona, Mount Hutt, Mount Cook, Queenstown and Lake Tekapo.

Travellers were encouraged to take an NZdronie for free and share that on their social networks with the hashtag #NZdronie.

The best shared NZdronie of the day won prizes that included activities to experience more of the area.