Advertising on television in the Australian market is an expensive business. Even some of the biggest brands with sizable budgets struggle to maintain a heavy television presence. Therefore, brands with smaller budgets have to turn to alternative methods to ensure their brand has a presence.Brands have begun to turn to branded content ideas. However, the reality is that most brands only entertain the notion of creating branded content ideas because their budget doesn’t allow them to pay for television advertising.

Despite the fact that you can afford to make branded content and put it on the Internet, it doesn’t mean people will find it interesting or engaging.

So we needed to ask ourselves a simple question…Why would anyone want to watch, share or talk about the content we create? New Zealand is undoubtedly a fantastic destination, but we needed to create drama around what we wanted to showcase, if we really wanted to create interest in New Zealand.And that’s how the Kiwi Sceptics was born.

The Challenge:New Zealand is an amazing country, probably one of the best places on the planet. You would think the average Australian would be flocking to such a stunning little country: but they don’t. When it comes to a holiday, New Zealand is way down their list.For many, New Zealand is just a ‘crapper’ version of Australia: a boring country, which lacks culture and is full of sheep.Therefore, Air New Zealand needed to convince a sceptical Australian nation that New Zealand offers an awesome holiday experience.The Objective:Convince Australians that New Zealand is actually an awesome place to go on holiday.The Strategy:Convince the most sceptical Australians that New Zealand is an awesome holiday destination and we could convince anyone.The Execution:We created an online reality show called the ‘Kiwi Sceptics’, which documented the journey of Air New Zealand's attempts to convert 4 Australians into New Zealand advocates.We found 4 real Australians who all said that they wouldn’t go to New Zealand in a million years and set out to change their mind.

First, we had to get them on the plane. So, we told them they were going to their dream destinations before surprising them with the fact that they were actually going to New Zealand. The journeys that followed became the basis for our show.The sceptics were not easily turned, but Air New Zealand enlisted the help of some guides who knew New Zealand inside out. Slowly but surely, our guides, Air New Zealand and New Zealand, worked their charm. We showed them all its awesome places, friendships were formed and our sceptics became believers.Our Sceptics would go on to become Air New Zealand’s ambassadors to preach to their 'bros' in Australia.

To tell the world, we teamed up with our mates at Nine MSN (one of Australian’s leading digital media and entertainment websites) and created an online hub so everyone could see the Kiwi Sceptics come out of the closet as lovers of everything Kiwi.Press and banner ads pulled people into our content and our ‘Dob in a Sceptic’ social campaign got people sharing.Our content was also broadcast in cinemas and on YouTube.We also used our former Kiwi Sceptics as spokespeople to preach to their fellow Kiwi Sceptic 'bros' in Australia, in PR and advertising.

By convincing our biggest sceptics, we convinced others too. With the help of a retail offer and 415,000 episode views, visits to airnz.com.au went up 14%. Online sales increased by 31% versus last year’s sale earning Air New Zealand over $1m a day for 3 days straight, a first for Air New Zealand.