The New Zealand Tourism Board is targeting 100,000 potential
travellers in a direct mail blitz over Christmas and the new year, a key
period for people planning long-haul destination holidays.
The two-pronged attack has been created by Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy
and is the agency’s last work for the client before it completes the
handover of the account to Saatchi & Saatchi. Both phases of the
campaign involve mail-outs containing a booklet and questionnaire.
The pre-Christmas push is aimed at couples whose children have grown up
and left home. The booklet, which was created by John Merriman, Kevin
Little and Alison Brain, with typography by Tim Lewis at Unreal, is
written in the style of a 50-year-old woman’s travel diary and recounts
her experiences in New Zealand.
The second phase of the campaign, targeting a younger audience of 18- to
30-year-olds, will go out in January.
The questionnaires ask simple questions about people’s interest in and
experience of holidaying in New Zealand.
The board is using registered names of people who have expressed a
desire in the past three years to go to New Zealand.
Saatchi & Saatchi won the global account for the New Zealand Tourism
Board after a three-way pitch against M&C Saatchi, Abbott Mead Vickers
BBDO and DDB Needham. Mustoe Merriman had held the UK business since
January 1996.
The direct mail campaign had been planned before the pitch.
