Newsletter : February 2007

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online

With our Tourism Award entry again on my agenda to sort out by the end of March (crickey I'd better get a wriggle along), it made me start thinking about innovation in business. Sure you can run a very good business but part of that (especially for us), is to develop and innovate. A couple of examples we have recently introduced are highlighted in this newsletter - an audio visual clip (helps convert lookers into bookers) and an automated auction system (allows us to offer a wide range of marketing spots on our site in an effective and interesting way).

It's worthwhile taking a look at your own business, not only from the perspective of assessing what you are doing well, but what other idea's can you introduce to perhaps diversify, or improve your business model. With technology making bigger advances every day, opportunities may now be feasible with the cost of implementation a lot better than a few years ago. Some of those idea's may become your main point of difference when it comes to competing for the visitor dollar.

Finally, daylight saving will come to an end in about 3 weekends time and with the weather as good as its been all summer, I'm out to make the most of it. New Zealand Tourism Online is fully behind an extension to daylight saving and with the media starting to get on board, you never know, next year we may have an extended tourism season.

NZTO AUCTION SYSTEM

You may have already been notified about an auction that directly relates to your business, however here's an overview of our new auction system.

New Zealand Tourism Online has developed a system that allows you to bid for a feature position or various other special advertising spots on the www.tourism.net.nz Web site. You can save hundreds of dollars. All you do is bid and if you are the highest, you win. Some auctions will be of interest to a broad range of tourism operators while others are much more specific. We have automated the system and the benefit is that everyone saves money because we use less company resources. Each one is only open for a short period of time.

How Does It Work?

As a rule we'll email you only when an auction is applicable to your business i.e. if we have a feature spot in the Wanaka Bed and Breakfast section, and you are a Wanaka Bed and Breakfast operator we'll let you know about it. We try to spread out the auctions but occasionally you may be sent a couple of emails within a short period of time. For example, a different opportunity in main Bed and Breakfast category may have become available as well.

Note: Auctions are only used to offer additional marketing spots to increase the exposure for your business overall and do not replace normal directory listings.

Bids always start low however you can also opt to use the 'buy now' button which will instantly close the auction ensuring you are the winner for that particular position. If you place a bid, we'll even keep you up-to-date with emails so you won't have keep a close eye on how your bidding is going.

MULTIMEDIA - AUDIO VISUAL Clips

These are proving very popular with over 140 tourism operators now taking advantage of the products' benefits. visual (as we call it) is entirely geared towards helping you convert “lookers into bookers”. One major feature is that you can add it to your own Web site and to any emails you send out. As you can imagine, people viewing these clips find them very compelling.

Take a look at the audio visual directory and the variety of different tourism operators from around the country who already promote themselves through this media.

Remember, this audio visual product is designed to be cost effective and compelling, with the images and sound combination really helping liven up your site visitors experience. visual attaches to your listing on our site and includes button options and links so you can use it on your own Web site or in emails to your customers!

Key Features

• Low cost
• Fast loading
• Communicate key messages and images in a focused format
• Suitable for both small and larger tourism operators across all market sectors
• Very appealing to your potential customers with additional conversion opportunities
• Professionally recorded soundtrack of your key messages
• Excellent selection of background music
• Add to your own Web site after we supply you with button and text options
• Include it in your own emails to potential customers

Contact your tourism consultant or one of our specialist product Managers (Mike O'Sullivan on 0800 14-65-52 or Mike Kaye on 0800 14-65-54 for more information - yes both are called Mike). These are proving popular, so get your order in now!

Do You Have A Strong Brand?

by Avatar Web Promotions

Businesses can spend a great deal of time and energy on establishing a strong brand. Why? — because it's commonly acknowledged that a strong brand is a powerful marketing tool for every business. A strong brand can help promote products and services and help cement businesses uppermost in people's minds.

Successful brands can become part of everyday language: hoovering (vacuuming), googling (searching the Web) and xeroxing (photocopying) for example. Branding is powerful, so let's look at a few ways in which you can harness brand power and create or strengthen your own branding.

Making your brand matter

• Company name — If you're starting from scratch, think of a company name that's easy to remember and that can be associated with a positive value or characteristic. Make it short, simple, memorable and UNIQUE!
• Design a strong logo — Create an easily identifiable logo (think of the Nike tick, Mac's apple, McDonald's golden arches). Don't under estimate the importance of design, colours and font styles; Cadbury, for example, trademarked their particular shade of purple and Coca Cola trademarked their 'signatory' flourish.
• Brand value — Start educating your customers and your employees about your brand values (for example, you may want your brand to be synonymous with quality, innovation or style). Think about writing some of these values into a short, snappy strap line, which sums up what your brand and business is about.

Once you've decided on your branding, begin the process of imprinting your brand onto the minds and memories of your audience. The best way to do this is through consistency, repetition and exposure. Add your logo and strap line to every piece of communication: your Web site, email signatures, business cards, letterheads, envelopes, compliment slips, advertisements, viral marketing, postcards, games, Christmas cards, office walls and company car. EVERYWHERE!

Keep up with the times

Don't be shy of updating your branding. If your 'look' is dated, what are you telling people about your business? You don't have to be a big player like Air New Zealand or AMI to benefit from a fresh coat of paint — a new logo, new colours and a new strap line can help to create a fresh, modern and progressive attitude for your business.

It's well worth reviewing your own company - do it sooner than later.

TOURISM and INTERNET Tidbits

• Petition for more daylight! If you like the idea of extending the New Zealand summer and enjoying more daylight hours, join New Zealand Tourism Online's daylight saving petition. You'll be helping to promote energy saving, health, well-being and tourism. Note - the actual petition closes 28th February 2007.
• Best Year Ever for New Zealand Tourism. New Zealand attracted the most visitors ever in 2006, with the number of Australians reaching the 900,000 mark for the first time.
• Bumper band aid for Microsoft. Windows users are being urged to install Microsoft's February security update, which contains 12 patches for 20 vulnerabilities. Many Windows XP owners are likely to get the patches automatically, but any user can download the patches from the Windows Update site.
• Search engine with snapshots of results. If you want to have a look at a Web site before you click onto it, then try Snap, a nice-looking search engine that gives you a sneak preview of sites listed in its search results.
• Wake up with Stephen Fry. If you like the mellifluous tones of English actor and wit, Stephen Fry, you may be interested in the Voco clock, which wakes you up and sends you off to sleep to the sound of his voice.
• Take a step against global warming. Improve the efficiency of your computer usage and see how many trees and gallons of oil you save simply by switching your computer off.
• Tourism NZ turns NZ Green & Gold. A new New Zealand television campaign is showing New Zealand’s true colours – green and gold!