When Covid-19 hit, the world closed its borders. International tourism was abruptly halted in its tracks.

In New Zealand, a country of just 5 million people where tourism makes up 20% of our GDP and employs 479,000 people, this was a major problem.

The nation was faced with a sudden and massive hole in the tourism industry, not to mention the New Zealand economy as a whole.

In response, Tourism New Zealand’s mandate changed.

Instead of attracting visitors from other countries, we needed to get New Zealanders to dramatically increase the amount they spend on tourism domestically. We needed Kiwis to explore New Zealand the same way international tourists do.

The objective? To inspire everyday Kiwis to fill the void left by international tourism, rebooting an entire industry and helping the New Zealand economy recover.

We created ‘Do Something New, New Zealand’. An inspiring idea (and campaign line) that encourages Kiwis to not just go on any holiday, but a NEW one.

We needed the nation on-side, and quickly. So we launched with a bang in a quintessentially Kiwi way: cheeky, positive and down-to-earth.

As a nation we love a singalong. Which made the solution obvious. We’d launch ‘Do Something New, New Zealand’ through the power of song.

Something uplifting. Catchy. And preferably fronted by a couple of national treasures.

Aaaaand that’s where Madeleine Sami and Jackie Van Beek came in.

The star comedy duo performed ‘Do Something New, New Zealand’, a single released on Spotify, vinyl and a music video shared on all other broadcast media channels.

Giving the nation a much-needed smile, the song told Kiwis exactly what they needed to do – and helped reboot our tourism industry.

With lockdown loosening but international borders closed, one would expect that New Zealanders would immediately start exploring their country.

New Zealanders, after all, are some of the world’s most well-travelled people.

Unfortunately, through research, we found that New Zealanders were decidedly unintrepid on their home turf.

In fact, only 39% wanted to do something new post-lockdown.

It’s because New Zealand holidays are steeped in routine. Returning to the beach-house, rather than participating in New Zealand’s tourism economy (that was now on life-support without any international travellers).

We needed to shake New Zealanders from their holiday inertia and become more experimental in their approach to domestic travel. Inspire them to try new activities, go new places and change their mindsets about what a NZ holiday could be.

To achieve this we needed to be clear, engaging, and communicate in a way as new as the activities we wanted them to try.

For maximum impact, the song launch was choreographed to coincide with a buoyant national mood. Springtime, post-election and coming out of a second lockdown, Kiwis were looking forward to summer.

After the news, at 6:57PM on a Tuesday 27 October, an all-channel roadblock launched the song to the nation. This was immediately followed by interviews with Madeleine on two national talk-shows with subsequent interviews on breakfast television and radio.

The television and Spotify launch was supported by a vinyl press (by the aptly named Holiday Records), and a nationwide OOH, digital and social campaign. Regional tourism operators joined in, using a toolkit that made it easy to add Do Something New to their own messaging. Air New Zealand even dedicated an entire issue of Kia Ora magazine to ‘New’.

Across subsequent seasonal and regional campaigns, the song has been our consistent hero, reminding us to Do Something New, New Zealand.

The message was received loud and clear. The song delivered just under 2,000,000 completed listens – only 625,000 listens from being certified gold by RIANZ[1].

The campaign also achieved outstanding recognition.

In the first 48 hours, the song had 250,000+ YouTube views, with 12,000+ engagements, 85% of which were positive.

In full, 80% New Zealanders recall seeing campaign elements (three quarters of them liked it/loved it).

But we needed action more than recognition.

Over half of New Zealanders were motivated to act.

From launch until the end of 2020, domestic tourism spend was $7.6 billion – an increase of over $1.5 billion dollars from 2019.

Year-on-year domestic spend increased across the board, ranging from a 13% increase in Rotorua, to a 109% increase in Fiordland.

This level of spend delivered an impressive attributable ROMI for Tourism New Zealand of just $10.04.

All because we asked Kiwis to Do Something New.