Posts filed under ‘Digital’
Summer Read Recommendations
If you have a chance to put your feet up this season but still fancy putting the time to good use, here’s a few reading recommendations from our team that both entertain and inform:
The Idea Writers by Teressa Iezzi
Recommended by: Angela Moriarty, Communications Manager
I’m only a couple of chapters in, but already I’m really enjoying this and can’t wait to put my feet up and get into it. While The Idea Writers has been penned with copywriters in mind, it holds a lot of insights that are relevant to anyone interested in marketing, advertising, the new media age, and how the customer experience affects your brand. You’ll have heard a lot of it before I’m sure, but it’s an easy and interesting read that inspires with great examples and will definitely get you thinking about what you can do next.
Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey by Mike Parker
Recommended by: David Perks, CEO
I picked this book up a few months ago without even scanning the pages I knew this was a book for me. I am a Map Addict; I can’t stand the thought of going anywhere without a map. Indeed, for most places I go I will take numerous maps. When I read this book I realised that I really am an addict. For me, maps are a window on what travel is like as a child. I would compulsively draw maps of anywhere, everywhere and places that only existed in my imagination. If you should happen to read this book there’s a story in the first chapter about map acquisition as a child that I really identified with… go read the book and then tell me off!
Working in the travel sector, I like travel books, I like inspirational pictures and blogs and tweets, BUT most of all I like maps. If you like maps it’s well worth looking out for this book. If you like maps and grew up in England in the 70s and 80s, then it’s a must read!
Tell to Win by Peter Guber
Recommended by: Alana McGillivray, Digital Projects Manager
My book recommendation is for a book that I really, really want to read, but haven’t yet had the chance. In fact, I’ve even gone so far as to getting it out of the library, but alas, those pages remained unturned. Tell to Win interests me as there’s a definite shift happening in how destinations, and indeed products, are promoted, moving away from ‘marketing’ to ‘storytelling’. This is the focus of Peter Guber’s book, and below is the snippet about it I came across on the Co.Create Blog that makes me want to read it:
“Guber argues that humans simply aren’t moved to action by ‘data dumps’, dense PowerPoint slides, or spreadsheets packed with figures. But we are beasts of emotion more than logic. We are creatures of story, and the process of changing one mind or the whole world must begin with ‘Once upon a time.’ “
You can find out more about the book on the Forbes Book Review. And if you do get time to read it, I’d love to know what you thought.
A Stadium of 4 million by Martin Snedden
Recommended by: Jessica Stephens, Australia Marketing Manager
I haven’t actually read this yet, but it’s on my list! I’m interested in how a single event brought a country together and, having worked on it during my time with Air New Zealand, I’m keen to read Martin’s overall observations in A Stadium of 4 Million.
My Life in France by Julia Child
Recommended by Sarah Meikle, General Manager, Marketing
My Life in France is an inspiring read penned by Julia Child about her time living in France and studying at Le Cordon Bleu. It’s got me thinking…maybe I should sign up for a course or two and Wellington’s own latest opening of this global institution!
What do you think people should be reading this summer? Post a comment and share your recommendations.
Wishing Goes Well for Wellington
The Bucket Fountain – it’s one of Wellington’s most iconic locations, and in October, it was the inspiration behind our campaign, the Wellington Wishing Well.
As you may have gathered by the campaign’s title, we transformed the Bucket Fountain into a magical online wishing well, granting 31 wishes in 31 days.
The Wellington Wishing Well, granting wishes since really recently.
How it worked
Every day in October, Wellingtonians and others from within New Zealand could rock up to WellingtonWishingWell.com and throw wishes into the well. These wishes could be predetermined wishes from our amazing list, or custom wishes. Such amazing predetermined wishes included a day of lawn bowls with Wellington’s most renowned bartenders – Jonny and Justin McKenzie from Cuckoo, a bespoke eight course dinner for four at Hummingbird, tickets to iconic Wellington events (Hertz Sevens, Brancott Estate World of WearableArt Awards Show, Toast Martinborough), and a bathtub of champagne at The Library.
The aim of including such wishes was to promote the Wellington businesses and events that were involved while also increasing the digital audience of Wellington through acquiring new Facebook followers as well as enewsletter subscribers.
Once a wish was ‘thrown in’, users would see the wishing well animate just like the Cuba Street version with water flowing from bucket to bucket. This was done by using HTML 5 and animated on both PC and mobile. One wish was then granted everyday in October.
Results
Overall, 61,825 wishes were made throughout the 31 days, with an average of 1,994 wishes submitted daily. 12% of all wishes came through via a mobile device, supporting our decision to have a mobile alternative.
In terms of acquisition, a staggering 21,301 users were acquired at a cost per acquisition (CPA) rate of $0.97 – so you could say our wish came true too! Broken down, the 21,301 users were acquired across different channels; 14,750 new Facebook likes, 3,980 new KNOW Wellington subscribers, 2,523 new New Zealand subscribers and 48 new Aussie subscribers, and takes PWT’s overall Digital audience to over 200,000.
14,750 new Facebook likes acquired overall, 2,500 of which were in the first 24 hours.
In terms of visits, 77,960 people visited WellingtonWishingWell.com, with 49% coming from outside of Wellington. And in a nod to the strength of social media sharing call-to-actions, the campaign, which was only targeted at a domestic audience, received visits from 63 different countries, with English speaking countries making up the majority of these.
Wondering what digital campaign we’ll come up with next? Well Christmas is just around the corner…stay tuned!
While You Were Peeping
As you may have ‘herd’, Rydges Wellington cooked up something a bit different as they got set for the full and final reveal of their new restaurant, Portlander Bar & Grill. The winners of last year’s Hospitality Association of New Zealand award for excellence in marketing – who have been behind campaigns such as ‘Live Like a VIP’ – ran a black out no ‘peeping’ campaign as the capital of cool’s newest grill house got ready for its big reveal on July 16.
The restaurant was blacked out so no one could see what was going on, except for a ‘peep hole’ on the corner of Whitmore and Featherston Sts for curious passers-by. Peeping Toms and Tom-girls were snapped, with images uploaded to Portlander’s Facebook page. By commenting on their pic, peepers could be in to win two nights’ accommodation for two in Rydges Hotel’s luxury Penthouse Suite, including full buffet breakfast for two on both days, a three course dinner for two at Portlander Bar & Grill, and an exclusive invite to the official opening night of Portlander on August 9. Certainly worth a look.
The new restaurant decor has been designed to complement the menu’s focus on “superb cuts of meat prepared to perfection and finished in style”. No word yet on if the lovely Rydges ladies will be sporting Gaga-esque meat dresses at the big reveal on Thursday. But speaking of fashion, the hotel also recently launched its new uniforms by Wellington designer Deryn Schmidt.
Rydges Hotel recently had new uniforms designed by Wellington’s Deryn Schmidt.
The Rydges team report that 300 peepers were ‘caught’, with 226 new Facebook likes resulting. The total Facebook reach from their campaign was over 300,000. The new-look Portlander Bar & Grill has since been revealed:
The new-look Portlander Bar & Grill
Seen or been involved in other examples of doing things a little differently to promote accommodation and restaurants? Post a comment with the details, your thoughts, ideas or learnings.
More Than Words: Using Video to Communicate
By Angela Moriarty
If a picture speaks a thousand words, a video has the potential to say millions. And the tourism industry has got a lot to say – visitor numbers, media results, campaign creative and reach… basically more images and data than you can shake a tour bus at. A really big tour bus.
Businesses are increasingly using video as a means to communicate results and/or entertain and thank stakeholders. At their annual movie night with partners, the Trade Me team always pull out a beauty for the latter purpose.
You’ll no doubt be well acquainted with the Air New Zealand safety videos. But the airline also regularly uses the video medium to report on their activities and successes, for example with this clip outlining their use of social media:
Over the past few years Positively Wellington Tourism has taken the video route for reporting to our stakeholders at our end of year function. Not only is it a more approachable way of presenting information, you can get more detail in front of people than would be interesting in a written document or list in a speech. Video reports also double as great content for the many presentations to community and industry groups CEOs carry out as part of any good external relations strategy.
Despite the challenges 2011 put in front of the New Zealand tourism industry, Wellington had a record September, record winter and many more fantastic results. We did our best to summarise the volume, variety and, most importantly, the results of our year’s work into a few minutes:
Wellington Zoo also showcased their impressive results through video:
In 2010 we went down the case study route, sharing the process and results of the launch of Wellington’s first major consumer campaign in Australia. In the 24 months to March 2012 since its launch, this campaign has seen Australian visitor arrivals into Wellington increase by 21%.
Who Do We Use for Video Production?
We often get asked for advice as to which agencies and individuals we use for contract work. When it comes to corporate video, we script and plan internally and get Touch/Cast to put it together and make it look good.
There are definitely going to be occasions where time and budget don’t justify or accommodate utilising a professional. As we approached WLG Melbourne, we plugged some very amateur footage we’d take at the Sydney version of the pop up restaurant project into Microsoft Movie Maker. Not exactly groundbreaking production software, but chances are it’s on your computer already and if I can figure it out, I’d contend most people can.
Another thing the DIY video producer needs is rights-free music (don’t risk breaching copyright by using any old tune you like without permission). You can spend a lot of time online searching for this stuff – a colleague directed me to jewelbeat.com, which has a range of decent tracks for a bargain US99c.
The end result is certainly not going to win any production awards, but shows something can be done from the simplest tools and footage:
What are your experiences with corporate video, and what great tools/tricks/examples do you have to share?
Absolutely Positive Results for April Fools Spoof
By Angela Moriarty
Here at Positively Wellington Tourism we’re unapologetically positive about Wellington, tourism and pretty much most other things. We’ll talk up Wellington until the colossal squid, the ever growing population of tui and the Cuba Street hipsters come home because the coolest little capital in the world deserves nothing less.
But noone likes a skite. And we are also very wary of that. We don’t fancy people mistaking our absolute positivity and confidence in our fair city for arrogance.
From time-to-time we’ve got to balance out all that positivity with a bit of a self effacing elbow in the ribs. So in a nod to April Fools’ Day and a nudge at our unashamedly and unapologetically positive perspective on the world, on April 1 we released a spoof news broadcasting reporting latest ‘research’ has revealed Wellington is the Capital of Absolutely Positively Everything. Well, almost.
We never pretended it wasn’t an April Fools. While the point of April Fools’ Day is to trick people – and a few New Zealand companies pulled out some stellar efforts – we felt the concept didn’t really require or warrant that. Also, because April Fools fell on a Sunday we were heavily relying on our own databases and networks for distribution. And naturally anyone who signs up to or follows Wellington, is well smart and wouldn’t fall for it.
There are times when it’s appropriate to feature staff, and others when it’s not. This was the former for two reasons – firstly, budget. This was designed as a low-cost, tongue-in-cheek activity, not a big budget campaign. There was no room for talent fees, so we had to rely on in-house ‘talent’ (and I use the term loosely). Secondly, we were sending ourselves up so we needed to front up. Viewers – including a number of media contacts - responded really well to this.
So, what were the results?
:: Over 5000 views and 36 likes on youtube
:: Over 5200 web page views.
:: Facebook reach of almost 22,000, courtesy of 811 engaged users. There were 67 shares, 203 likes and about 33 comments.
:: 76 mentions and retweets on Twitter, including by the likes of @JustinFlitter (over 32,000 followers) and @GreerMcDonald (almost 6500 followers).
:: A few media mentions – Capital Day, a branded mug video bomb on TVNZ’s Breakfast, and StopPress.co.nz.
:: And of course the bit that we live for, some absolutely positive love for Wellington:
