Te Araroa, The Long Pathway, is a walking trail that spans the entire length of New Zealand, from the tip of the North Island to the southernmost point of the South Island.

Our objective was to excite people about this newly opened trail and get them to book a trip to walk a small part of the trail, or even take on the whole thing.

Our target audience was people TNZ call ‘Active Considerers’ – people who are searching for information about holiday destinations and those actively looking to book their trip.

We wrote a long copy story to give people a sense of the epic nature of Te Araroa. We then weaved the advert across every single page of the weekend travel section, from beginning to end, just like the trail itself weaves its way along the entire length of New Zealand.

With a bespoke small space media buy for each page, the advert appeared differently on each page, giving it renewed impact with every page turned.

The Art Direction also brought the story to life with visual surprises hidden within the topographic lines.

To encourage people to book a walking holiday in New Zealand, we began by creating a long copy press ad that took readers on a journey along Te Araroa.

We then used a unique media buy to own the travel section of a weekend newspaper. The advert began on the front cover and weaved unbroken across every page, through continuous, linked small space placements.

The ad drove readers to newzealand.com, where they could start booking.

The newspaper independently chose to write editorial content that corresponded to our ad – turning our small media buy into 8 pages of dedicated content.

In one weekend and with just an AU$160,000 media buy, Tourism New Zealand and Te Araroa got a dedicated 8-page travel section in a weekend newspaper, with bonus editorial content worth over AU$375,000 in equivalent advertising value.

The advert reached over 2.6 million ‘Active Considerers’, which led to a 691% increase in visits to the website from the previous month. From the website alone, booking referrals increased 201% with people wanting to take a trip along Te Araroa.