100% Pure YOU is Pure BORING!

100% Pure YOU! Is pure boring! It could do with a bit of colour. There’s way too much green and absolutely no shades of brown.

Apparently, Tourism NZ research says: cut the scenery and aim for the heart and soul of the visitor. But the YOU campaign is still landscape heavy backed up by bad acting and trite scripting.

Three Australian ads rolled out this week, all trying to evoke a different type of emotion.
Exhilaration: A 20-something year old girlie-girl getting her thrills jet boating, “…across ribbons of water through the most amazing landscapes you’ve ever seen”.
Passion: A couple finding romance riding horseback through bush, over hills to a deserted beach, “…to a place so close but feels so far away…”
Love: A father and son bond over a narrow bridge in dense native forest where, “…there’s no ticket office and no takeaways”.

Some bush, some water a horse – is that all we have to offer? I lived with Australians for a few years and I can tell you they’re a gusty lot. A jet boat, horse and bridge isn’t gonna pull their strings. There’s nothing special or authentic or compelling about these three things. Infact former ad agency boss Nigel Keats reckons our scenery isn’t our point-of-difference, our type of bush, water and horse can be found anywhere in the world. While Maori Party MP and tourism spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell says what’s missing is the unique Maori factor.

To evoke soulful emotions means engaging all senses. Exhilaration requires one to stare into the eyes of fear, passion demands an out of body experience, familial love involves compassion. These are experiences of a spiritual nature. That’s not to say the ad makers need to conjure up kehua/ghost or apply some voodoo magic. But if according to Keats our scenery is a dime-a-dozen then the selling point is in the experience. If that unique experience is found with Maori as Flavell suggests then wouldn’t it be common sense to combine the unique experience with Maori.

If tourists want a thrill, I would offer up a powhiri from Kotane in Christchurch or Tamaki Village Rotorua or Haka Pa in Queenstown? The experience of a half naked tattooed warrior lunging at you with a long stick may not give you a 20 minute adrenalin rush but it sure as heck will spike your heart rate well above normal. If it’s passion visitors are after how about a night of ‘Opera in the Pa’ in Rotorua. Under the stars with some of the country’s greatest singers can inspire ardour in the most cynical of couples. If it’s a familial bonding experience then a waka trip along the Whanganui River with Awa Tours may do the trick. The team work and reliance on each other infused with astounding historical stories of the people and yes the beautiful country side is compelling.

Flavell is correct, Maori are found nowhere except here in gods zone. The audio and visual cues Keats was looking for, that will stand New Zealand apart from the rest of the world are within the Maori world. To promote New Zealand by highlighting Maori experiences, world, images and sounds, makes sense.

The opportunity isn’t lost. We can still make colourful ads that have that brown, indigenous and Maori experience for the North American and Asian markets. Tourists are demanding new, better different experiences – let’s give them that. It’s not about asking Tourism New Zealand to be bold and courageous – it’s just asking them to see what’s in front of them. So come on Tourism New Zealand let’s give the world what no other country has - Maori.