Tourism New Zealand has picked up more international honours for its 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand campaign, which won the Travel & Tourism category at the inaugural Asia Pacific Excellence Awards, which recognise outstanding achievement in the field of PR and communications.
It is the first year the European Excellence Awards have been taken to the global level, with five continents now vying for the awards for best in PR & Communications in their region. The 2015 awards attracted 2600 applications worldwide.
The TNZ award-winning PR campaign focused on the premier of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies to leverage New Zealand’s leading role as Middle-earth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings film trilogies.
The campaign was developed in partnership with Wingnut Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros, along with Air New Zealand (the official “airline of Middle-earth”) to lift preference for travel to New Zealand. No ad agency was directly involved.
The activity included a global fan contest, international media programme, video and written content and PR at the world premiere in London.
“This is excellent news,” said TNZ ceo Kevin Bowler. “The three years of 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand were extraordinarily successful and the Middle-earth concept is still an important reason that many international travellers visit New Zealand.
“As a marketing organisation, it is great to see our work being judged and acknowledged at an international level. This work was a collaboration with key partners and the award is important recognition for everyone who was part of the 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand work.”
Since the campaign was launched in 2012, it has won the World’s Leading Destination Marketing Campaign in the World Travel Awards 2012 and the Pacific Asia Travel Association’s Grand Award, Marketing in 2014.
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