Tourism New Zealand turns fantasy into reality in new ‘100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand’ campaign via Whybin\TBWA Auckland + Sydney
Earlier this year, Whybin\TBWA, Auckland and Sydney was presented with a once in a lifetime brief by Tourism New Zealand to create both an evolution of the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign and an idea that leveraged the concept of New Zealand as home of Middle-earth.
The result is a new brand film that uses Middle-earth as a means to showcase the country and show audiences what appears to be a fantasy land is in fact a real place to be enjoyed by all visitors.
Says Andy Blood, Whybin\TBWA executive creative director: “When the two Whybin\TBWA offices (Sydney and Auckland) won the Tourism New Zealand account last November, I don’t think we ever expected to get off to such a flying start – creating a global, integrated campaign that leverages the connection with Middle-earth.
The 100% Pure New Zealand brand campaign is now in its 13th year and it’s an honour to be able to put our stamp on it.”
Narrated by esteemed actor Sir Ian Holm, the brand film gives potential visitors to New Zealand a flavour of what they might expect when they get here, the people they’ll meet, the local culture and the captivating experiences they’ll enjoy.
Says Blood: “We wished to blend storytelling techniques used in the cinema with real stories of New Zealand, to get across to audiences the world over that New Zealand is magical place where the lines between real life and fantasy blur. This led us to 100% Middle-earth is 100% Pure New Zealand – a parallel universe, which to all intents and purposes is real.”
Says Justin Watson, Tourism New Zealand General Manager Marketing Communications: “This was definitely a challenging brief because the end result needed to deliver a tourism message that leveraged the movies but was not about promoting the movies. The team at Whybin\TBWA rose to the challenge and have developed a strong and compelling idea around Middle-earth and an execution that makes you proud to be a New Zealander.”
The campaign launched yesterday on newzealand.com and will appear across TV, cinema and digital in Australia from this Sunday 26 August, followed by the Western and Eastern markets in September and October respectively.
The campaign will direct people to newzealand.com where they will be able to interact with scenes depicted in the brand film. The scenes will lead users to discover more about the regions and rich experiences they can enjoy in New Zealand. From there users can link directly to travel providers and offers so they can start planning their own magical journey to Middle-earth.
Whybin\TBWA:
Executive Creative Director – Andy Blood
Executive Creative Directors: Matty Burton & Dave Bowman (TBWA Sydney)
Creative Director: Craig Farndale
Digital Creative Director: Ross Howard
Copywriters: Ryan Price, Lucy Morgan, Andy Blood, Tammy Keegan
Art Director: Cece Chu, Craig Brooks, Andy Blood
Designer: Chris Lewis
Head of Strategy – Hristos Varouhas (TBWA Sydney)
Senior Planner: Julie McIver
Agency Producer: Jackie Clark
Group Head: Natasja Barclay
Account Director: Mandy Eckford
Senior Account Manager: Julia McKee
Account Executive: Lynlee Smith
TBWA\Digital Arts Network for newzealand.com website:
Creative Director: Mark Zeman
Account Director: Stephanie Creasy
Project Manager: Louise Leitch
Senior Designer: Jonathan Mead
Production Specialist: Andrew Zen
Production Specialist: Nigel McHardy
Developer: Sam Kwan
Developer: Patrick Li
Production Company – Curious
Director: Darryl Ward
Film Company Producer: Andy Mauger
Film Company Executive Producer: Matt Noonan
DOP’s: Lachlan Milne, Darryl Ward
Editor: Tim Mauger
Music Composer/Producer: Dave Whitehead, White Noise Ltd
Music Engineer/Producer: Mike Gibson, Munki Studios
Audio Post: Digital Post & Factory Studios
Audio Engineer: Clive Broughton
Re Recording Mixer Cinema Versions – Park Road Post – Mike Hedges
Colourist: Pete Richie, Toybox
Online: Nigel Mortimer, Curious
Stills Photography: Fraser Clements, Match Photography
22 Comments
I love the look on the guys face in the last shot, he thinking- maybe this wizard can magically conjour me out of this super lame ad.
Absolutely positively fantastic.
Fucking amazing. Well done all.
I’m with Ed… stock tourism footage with super long VO. Didn’t quite get there for me.
best tourism ad ever
I’m with Ed….2 minutes too long.
@not my real name….
mate, really?….come on.
How unemotional and lacklustre. 1 out 10.
Beautiful, good film tie-in, and really unique offering. Expect to see a lot of people walking the Milford track, and getting out around the country. It’s going to work hard.
get back to work…..at whybins.
Great work.
boring as batshit. couldn’t make it to the end.
ray columbus -two points to make.the last film in the rings trilogy was ten years ago,the first thirteen years ago.it is a long bow boys.secondly why cling to 100%pure new zealand when it is clearly just a bolt on.client too shit scared to let it go i would guess.sorry fail.
FI…What planet are you on?
Reach for the lasers. Safe as fuck.
How did Whybin Sydney make their way onto this press release?
Judging by the comments this must be pretty good
(A few comments were aimed at the dragginess of the ad – the link is to the extended 2min cut, there’s also a 60″ that I expect gets more airplay.)
The LOTR films are long in the tooth, yeah, and this could have been done a decade ago, but to the average global punter peering at the bottom right corner of the world map and wondering whether to chance it, those films are still lodged in there (along with, and possibly ahead of, sheep and the All Blacks).
The script is decent in places, slightly contrived in places, but the biggest issue to address if Tourism NZ wants to stay on this tack is the lack of magic in the cinematography. Some of these shots are just too straight out of tourism clicheland, when the whole premise is about entering a slightly magical, mystical realm. It undermines the idea.
This doesn’t mean making a commercial that’s a fantasy film, it means doing a lot more visual justice to NZ’s attractions, in a much more imaginative way, next time.
The Hobbit is due out soon, so the timing is fine.
I love that they did this. NZ is totally Middle Earth.
But to be fair, it didn’t inspire me to visit. It just looks nice.
I read the above comments before viewing the spot and can only say that I’m surprised by the levels of enthusiasm for such an average piece of film.
Cheddar
That is really beautiful. Inspiring.