$550k on video campaign to lure tourists to Wellington
In a region facing hefty rates increases and leaking streets, WellingtonNZ has spent $550,000 on a campaign to lure people to winter in the capital.
The campaign features a woman who has apparently never done a variety of things including “killing it at karaoke”, scoring a crayfish, going to a show, and being inspired. It ends with a catch phrase, “but you would in Wellington”.
WellingtonNZ, owned by Wellington’s city and regional councils, has under the Local Government and Official Information and Meetings Act released a breakdown of the campaign showing it cost $550,000. That included $200,000 to create the “brand platform” and video, and another $350,000 for media placement.
Wellington City Council is WellingtonNZ’s biggest shareholder and funder. The council is currently looking at a 16.4% average rates increase in the coming year, which will be closer to 18% for most once a levy for a new sludge minimisation plant is factored in.
It comes after rates rises of 12.8%, 8.8%, then 12.3% in the previous three years as the city deals with years of underinvestment in infrastructure, a major cost blow out in fixing the Town Hall and other big costs including strengthening the city library and building a new sewage facility.
WellingtonNZ destination, marketing, and communications general manager Todd Barberel said the You Would campaign had a target of 25 million people watching the video.
WellingtonNZ said there had been more than 8.16 million impressions so far.
Barberel said it was too early for quantifiable data showing the numbers of tourists it attracted to Wellington but a recent $400,000 campaign aimed at getting people to move to Wellington for work, called Only in Wellington, was followed up with research.
That showed that more than half of the surveyed 25 to 54-year-olds said that, having seen the promotion, they would consider moving to the city. Wellington scored the highest of any major New Zealand city, he said.
All Wellington City councillors and mayor Tory Whanau were approached for comment. “It’s far too much money for this campaign and that’s not even considering the effectiveness of it,” Ray Chung said.
“WellingtonNZ has a huge budget and I’m not convinced that ratepayers are getting value for money from this. We’re looking at 18% to 19% rate increases in Wellington but we’re not cutting back on spending and there’s no consideration for the ratepayers.”
But Tim Brown said a strong case had been made about the value of tourism to the city’s economy.
“Naturally it’s difficult to know if a specific campaign achieves its objectives,” he said.
And Teri O’Neill said that with public service job cuts, it was crucial to get people coming to Wellington to support local businesses. “We contract WellingtonNZ to do exactly this,” she said.
“This campaign builds Wellington’s brand in a positive way, and with inclusion of event promotions like these convert visitors and business to our city.”
Last August WellingtonNZ ran a $470,000 Escape to Wellington campaign including a giant escape key in Manhattan, New York, to try to get people there to move to Wellington. It resulted in more than 2600 people from both the UK and the US submitting expressions of interest over the four weeks the campaign was live.