The Cook Islands for Real? Hooligan Collective and Te Rua Manga Productions launches post-covid recovery campaign for a little paradise

CB Exclusive – Australian production company Hooligan Collective, working with Te Rua Productions and Cook Islands Tourism have teamed up to create a new international campaign, to promote tourism visitation post-covid. The campaign taps into the insight of how many tropical zoom backgrounds people have been staring at the last 2 years, encouraging them instead to visit the Cook Islands ‘for real’.

In the launch film, the story starts with an all too familiar scene, a grid of faces in a zoom meeting, each with tropical meeting backgrounds. Only one however, is a live background on a beach in the Cook Islands. Our host Vainepoto, encourages the other meeting participants to close the laptops and come visit the Cook Islands, ‘for real’. She showcases the natural beauty of the destination, surpassing any meeting backgrounds or screensavers to be found online.

Says Karla Eggleton, CEO of Cook Islands Tourism: “For a small island nation so reliant on international tourism, it was pretty scary closing our international borders during the pandemic. To restart the tourism economy from a standing start, mere images of beautiful beaches and our lagoons wouldn’t do it. We needed to create a campaign that couldn’t be ignored.”

Says Noeline Matariki, chief marketing officer of Cook Islands Tourism: “People come to the Cook Islands for our natural beauty, but leave loving the big and colourful personalities of the local people they meet. This cheekiness is a part of who we are and at the heart of this new campaign.”

This is the latest instalment in the ‘Love a Little Paradise’ campaign for the Cook Islands, developed by Dylan Harrison, director at the Hooligan Collective and Te Rua Manga Productions. The campaign was originally launched in 2015 after a total rebrand project and has been running ever since.

Says Dylan Harrison: “The original ‘Love a Little Paradise’ campaign has been hugely successful for the Cook Islands over the years, essentially doubling their visitor numbers in under 5 years. So when we needed a powerful campaign platform to get visitors to return, we knew we needed to find the post-pandemic version of it.”

“Having shot all around the world, the Cook Islands still for me is the most beautiful place on earth, per square inch. Everywhere you look is stunning. What’s more, the people are just so friendly and entertaining. When you combine those two, it’s a filmmaker’s dream come true.”

The Cook Islands… for real campaign will run in various lengths at trade events, online and paid social media, with film, print and digital display executions.

Cook Islands Tourism CEO: Karla Eggleton
Cook Islands Tourism Director Sales and Marketing: Noeline Matariki
Cook Islands Tourism Marketing Co-ordinator: Daniel Fisher
Leading lady: Vaienepoto Tangaroa
Creative + Production: Hooligan Collective / Te Rua Manga Productions
Director + Producer: Dylan Harrison
DOP: Peter Eastgate
Editor: Ben Jones
Colourist: Billy Wychgel
Post house: Elements Post Production
Sound: Cheshire Audio
Composer & Sound Engineer: Shaun Clifford