NELSON/ MARLBOROUGH

The landscape, mouth-watering food and drinks, and outdoor scene make Nelson an attractive destination and the region is abuzz with industry. It houses the biggest fishing port in Australasia, and supports the country’s aviation, engineering, forestry, an

Tony Downing says most weeks he gets an email from a creative or media type wanting to move to Nelson.

“They’re looking for something fresh,” he says.

“Nelson is one of the most aspirational places to live, work and play in New Zealand.”

Downing is the creative director of Downing Creative in Nelson, a design and marketing business he started 24 years ago. He says the stunning landscapes, artisans and loads of clever businesses offer the opportunity to do great work during the day and make for a great playground when the day is over.

“Some regions rely on one or two major business drivers but the Nelson/tasman region has more,” Downing says.

He says locals are loyal to locally-owned businesses, and Downing Creative has a strong connection with the products they promote as many are produced in the region. And despite a perception the best work is done in the big cities, Downing says the regional businesses are proving that’s a myth.

“It’s all about perspective. Auckland might be New Zealand’s biggest city but in comparison to the rest of the world it’s a small city, but it still manages to make an impact.

“Cities and their size are less important than your ability to connect and do great work.”

Working with businesses such as New Zealand King Salmon, New Zealand Hops, NPD Fuel, and Nelson Airport, Downing says his team has a lot of creative freedom. The smaller town environment creates more horizontal working relationships, forging clarity and unity, and there is also a relational level where you might bump into one another on the weekend.

“There is a strong sense of community here.”

Downing says there are a number of advertising channels unique to the top of the South Island for clients that only focus on that region.

“For many of our clients, traditional mass media campaigns are not an option.

“That has meant we need to be very niche when choosing and buying media. We have had to do lots of research and dig deeper to find advertising platforms that are appropriate for our client's strategies.”

For example, a locally-owned community newspaper might only reach a small number of people, but if you string enough of them together you start getting reach that makes sense for a bigger campaign.

“The rise of digital advertising that allows geotargeting has been perfect for these clients too.”

Depending on the business and campaign, Downing’s team still makes use of local newspapers and radio, but with many of their clients promoting products nationally and overseas, digital media is often an effective means of communication.

Stuff Nelson regional editor Victoria Guild says with the huge audience power of Stuff, her team has the advantage of getting regional news out to a far greater audience than they did with just a newspaper, but they also recognise people in the community love local news and tailor stories for different audiences.

“I think our regional audience is more interested in the bigger picture nationwide than those in the big cities.

“They like to know what is happening in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, but also like to be kept well informed on what is going on in the region. They also expect more hyper-local coverage.”

All content appears online, and Guild says traditionally the region’s print readers are older and expect more in-depth, and local articles than digital readers and her team curates the newspaper content to appeal to them.

The Nelson team also provides hyper-local content in the community publications the Nelson Leader and Tasman Leader, and they use Stuff’s social media platform Neighbourly.

The local and addressverified site connects people within a community and Guild says it’s experienced big growth, and Stuff is using it rather than relying on Facebook’s everchanging algorithms.

She says the local audience is not just important but absolutely critical.

“The biggest stories of the day do not always come from the big cities, many come from regional New Zealand and we are there for those stories.

“We also know we need to be in councils and in courts to be the eyes and ears of our local residents and it is those stories that build the loyalty.”