New Zealand Tourism has changed its marketing message and focus from the 12 year old “100% Pure New Zealand” to a new and more personal “New Zealand 100% Pure You.”

New Zealand 100% Pure You Campaign

The new $85 million/year campaign was launched in the Australian market with three television commercials and online banner ads on Jan 9, 2011. It comes to North America, Europe and Asia in late February.

Tourism New Zealand General Manager Marketing Communications Justin Watson says the new campaign will highlight the diverse tourism experiences available in New Zealand, instead of the Lord of the Rings style landscapes and scenery spotlighted by the old campaign, which will now remain in the backdrop.

The main premise and reason for the ‘evolution’ in the message is that  New Zealand can increase its appeal by personalizing the marketing message and then customizing it for different markets. So the Australian tv ads show a young woman jet boating, a middle-aged father taking his children walking and a young woman horse riding.

They’ve put in a lot of effort behind the ads too, in an attempt to make it authentic. The young woman in the ads is Stephanie Lillis, a 25-yr old actor from Melbourne. Tourism NZ paid her $7,500 plus expenses for filming the jetboat ad on the Dart River near Queenstown.

The campaign is probably going to work out well, since it finetunes the message and will end up attracting many more of the potential 80 million people actively considering a visit to what they already know is 100% Pure New Zealand, but have no idea what to do after getting there.

But there are fears that the new message and its impact may dilute the 100% Pure New Zealand brand and take away from the main USP that New Zealand is a young country with vast natural beauty and resources as yet unspoilt by man. The indigenous Maori people also seem to be miffed at having been left out in the cold.

The Maori Party put out a press release that says “Nothing Maori, nothing unique in NZ tourism campaign.” Maori Party tourism spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell said in the statement that “The Maori people, our culture and language is what makes Aotearoa New Zealand unique – you will not find it anywhere else on earth yet we have been cut out of the frame in this campaign.”

More info: http://www.tourismnewzealand.com/

The Alaska Travel Industry Association is running a cable TV marketing campaign with four ads that are airing on the TLC reality show Sarah Palin’s Alaska, Discovery’s Deadliest Catch along with other shows on tv.

Alaska Beyond Your Dreams - Tourism Ad

Two of the ads have already been aired, and the third one, based on Alaska Tourism’s tagline of ‘Beyond Your Dreams, Within Your Reach” is about to air.

The ads show people photographing glaciers, wide angle shots of cruise ships, visitors watching grizzlies salmon fishing, and so on. The fourth ad is still under production. The ATIA apparently paid $600,000 for producing the ads.

Considering that former Gov. Sarah Palin was doing some of the same things in her show, it’s a good bet that the tv audience for her show will connect with the ads and generate a good response rate. Besides, the demographics for the show’s audience and Alaska’s standard visitor profile matches to a great degree.

According to the ATIA 2010 Travel Intentions study of inquiries that convert to actual visits, 67% of Alaska visitors are married, with an average age of 64 or thereabouts and an average income of around $70,000. According to Nielsen research, the median age of the TLC audience for Sarah Palin’s Alaska is 57.

Alaska Tourism is able to spend so much on the ads because Gov. Sean Parnell upped the TV ad budget from $1.2m to $6.1m for the current fiscal year. For FY2010, Alaska Tourism tv commercials were seen or heard 836 million times, and magazine ads were seen by 44.5 million subscribers. The state sent over 3.1 million direct mail packages with a message from Gov. Sean Parnell.

As a result, consumer visits to TravelAlaska.com increased by 15%, and Alaska travel stories were published in 377 publications with a combined circulation of 66 million. 20 million US consumers are now categorized as highly likely to visit Alaska in the next 5-7 years.

ATIA President Ron Peck tells Bloomberg that visitor numbers improved in 2010 and are expected to go up some more in 2011, so he hopes the state continues with the same level of enhanced funding in the future.

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The Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism has launched a new ad campaign that bills itself as an alternative desert destination to Las Vegas. The controversial part is that the campaign and each ad is explicitly titled “Palm Springs vs. Las Vegas.”

Each ad explicitly disses Las Vegas for being too urban and ugly, with traffic, fake Eiffel towers and giant neon cowboys that leave little chance to enjoy the natural landscape.

One ad has the tagline “Getting high means something completely different to us” along with a picture of the Palm Springs Aerial tramway climbing up against the backdrop of Mt. San Jacinto.

Palm Spings vs Las Vegas

Another ad says that “It’s a wonderful place to wash the rest of the world off.” The picture shows a guest enjoying a spa treatment in a natural mineral pool, followed by text that says “Oh, it can be a dirty, dirty world out there, can’t it? Fortunately, there’s a terrific place to wash it all off. (As opposed to drinking yourself into a stupor with a three-foot plastic souvenir cup.)”

Other ads have taglines like “Vacation in sweet desert air. As opposed to bus and taxi exhaust” and “We don’t blow up our 50-year old architecture.”

The concept is that Palm Springs hopes to let people know that it is a mini-Vegas without the hassles and crowds. It’s an odd way to do it, to be sure, and Vegas might not take too kindly to being dissed like this. But Mary Jo Ginther, Director of Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism, explains that the ad concept is to highlight the reason why travelers visit both Las Vegas and Palm Springs…year-round sunshine, easy accessibility and a festive atmosphere.

Ginther adds that “But, as we all know, Palm Springs has a more relaxed pace. It is a shorter drive, no traffic, no long check-in lines, and plus, you can be lounging by the pool hours earlier… It’s just a different experience here… We love Vegas, and know that visitors will come to love Palm Springs as much, or even more.”

Palm Springs logo

To go along with the ad campaign, Palm Springs also unveiled a new logo and tagline – “Like no place else” and they intend to hammer this anti-Vegas theme all year long with a $600,000 ad spend on the campaign. The campaign was created by Andrew Wilkin LLC, San Bernardino.

There’s a long history of destinations coming up with ad campaigns that have tried to take the moral high ground against Sin City’s brand and iconic tagline ”What Happens here, Stays here.” The most recent example is New York’s Get More NYC campaign.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced that BP is providing $7 million to the Northwest Florida Travel Council for tourism marketing and advertising. Florida had asked for $50 million, and Gov. Crist is still demanding that BP pay the balance of $43 million.

Gov. Charlie Crist onboard oil skimmer

BP has already paid Florida $25 million for tourism marketing, as part of a $70 million tourism promotion grant for the four Gulf Coast states impacted by the BP oil spill.

After that money ran out, Gov. Crist had sent a letter to BP on June 30, asking for another $50 million. BP refused, claiming that they didn’t see the need.

Apparently BP now sees the need, at least in Northwest Florida. Members of the Northwest Florida Travel Council include the tourist development councils of Escambia, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay counties.

They plan to use the BP funds to provide real-time information about the status of their beaches and run television, radio, print and online ads.

In response to BP’s new $7m committment, Gov. Crist sent a letter to Doug Suttles, CEO, Exploration & Production, BP America Inc. Excerpts from the letter:

“I must continue to urge BP to recognize that the impact of the oil spill extends far beyond the coastal counties of Northwest Florida… While the $7 million you have committed to the Northwest Florida Travel Council is certainly appreciated, we continue to believe, these funds fall drastically short of the need throughout the Sunshine State… From Pensacola to Key West, tourism industry leaders are reporting cancellations and declining reservations… To continue restoring their economic security, we respectfully request an additional $43 million to complete a second round of tourism advertising and marketing.”

That BP is willing to pony up more money for tourism marketing is good news for tourism boards in the Gulf Coast, and will almost certainly set off a new clamor for more BP funds from other organizations and cities that have made similar demands of BP.

Photo – U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Walter Shinn; source