Newsletter : August 2013
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz August 2013 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this August newsletter:
Reality TV Spotlight on New Zealand
Tourism New Zealand is leveraging off the latest high-octane adventure series to hit the US, 'Clean Break', which showcases our landscapes and adventures. Yahoo! 'Clean Break' shows the transformational stories of three 'every men' who get a break from their everyday lives for a unique, life-changing experience aimed at testing their physical and emotional boundaries. Visiting Auckland, Rotorua and Queenstown, the show's participants experience adrenalin-pumping activities from bungy jumping through to sailing on the Auckland Harbour.
- TNZ launched a complementary online campaign in early June to maximise the show's reach within the US market, specifically targeting the US youth sector.
- Banner adverts, using the recent 'Epic Experiences' campaign creative, are driving views to TNZ's Youth landing page featuring the Epic-Trip-O-Meter on the US version of newzealand.com.
- Running through to 6 September, the activity reinforces just how diverse a trip to New Zealand can be for the youth traveller.
- The 15 webisodes went live on Yahoo! in early June, ahead of the 27 June season premiere on US cable channel Fuel TV.
- You can watch the webisodes on Yahoo! here.
Tourism Excellence Celebrated
For the first time ever, five New Zealand holiday parks were awarded a complimentary Qualmark accreditation by Tourism Holdings Limited last month. thl and Qualmark joined forces to show their commitment to supporting quality and business development in the tourism sector.
Last year a report led by thl and conducted by New Zealand's leading tourism research firm Covec1, revealed that campervan tourism is responsible for almost half a billion dollars to the New Zealand tourism industry including significant spend in the holiday park sector.
The following five holiday parks were selected to undergo a complimentary Qualmark quality evaluation and annual licence to recognise their commitment to providing high quality visitor experiences.
- Ashley Gorge Holiday Park, Ashley Gorge, Canterbury
- Glentunnel Holiday Park, Glentunnel, Canterbury
- Mawley Holiday Park, Masterton
- Ruakaka Beach Holiday Park, Ruakaka
- Whananaki Holiday Park, Whananaki
Advertising for Tourism Businesses
Written by Steph Kendall
Attracting and finding customers for a tourism product can be far more challenging than for a tangible product such as clothing, buildings or vehicles. Most tourism operator have to sell their products before the consumer experiences them. Tourism products are sold on a 'promise' of things to come.
With 'promissory' products, it's even more important to use advertising effectively. Advertising, done well, can help raise local, national and international awareness of a tourism product and more importantly create an appealing product (or if you prefer, an irresistible product image).
What is Advertising?
Broadly speaking, advertising relates to any paid communication – from cinema, television, radio, internet adverts, print media (newspapers, magazines), posters and billboards. Advertising can reach a large audience at once and the same message can be repeated many times.
What Your Advert Should Say
Creating the right message for your advert is very important to avoid wasting precious time and money. An advertisement, in any format, should convey the following:
- Introduce a particular product/service
- Explain the product or service
- Demonstrate its unique selling points
- Provide an indication of price
- Indicate the product's location/ availability
Tourism Advertising
Before you embark on an advertising campaign, think about the following:
- Who is going to find your product/experience most appealing?
- What are your potential customers’ needs and desires?
- What creative methods can you use to generate interest in your product?
- What is the best way to reach your potential customers?
Answering these questions can help you decide which method of advertising is most appropriate for your business and which is most likely to make customers 'turn toward' your product. ('Ad vertere' means “to turn toward” in Latin.)
Advertising Budget
Advertising costs can quickly add up – be careful not to loose sight of any on-going advertising costs such as search engine advertising which can easily spiral out of control if not monitored regularly. Set an advertising budget and stick to it. Many small businesses spend between 2 and 7 percent of their gross sales on advertising (though some allocate as much as 10 percent). If it's too expensive for your business to advertise regularly, aim for one “big advertising voice” (or advertising push) rather than lots of weak ones.
It's also important to be aware of how effective each method of advertising may be for your particular business. Print advertising especially can prove rather expensive for small to medium sized businesses and 'returns' (e.g. actual bookings, enquiries or leads) may be difficult to measure or relatively few in number.
Advertising Methods
With budget and returns firmly in mind, you could choose the following methods to advertise your business:
- Leaflets / flyers – Distributed to a local (i.e. regional and national) market by hand, into letterboxes or inserted into publications
- Print advertising – Adverts placed in local, regional or national newspapers, ethnic publications, trade and tourist magazines, journals or newsletters and magazines relevant to your target market
- Canvassing – Making sales visits or calls
- Radio or television advertising – Placed locally, regionally, nationally or internationally
- Wholesaler programmes – Sharing the costs with other business helps make campaigns less expensive and potentially reach a wider audience
- Sponsorship – Sponsor an event to expose your business to large crowds
- Listings and displays – Includes text and image advertising in telephone or business directories in print or online editions
- Co-operative advertising – Promoting your business via your local, regional or industry association
- Online advertising - Adverts on 3rd party websites (banners and text listings), search engine adverts (Google, Live.com, Yahoo!)
- Out-of-home advertising – Consider how you could use billboards, bus shelters, news racks, mall kiosks and telephone booth advertising (known as street furniture advertising) and transit adverts (taxis, aeroplanes, buses, bikes, etc.).
10 Tips to Improve Business
Written by Steph Kendall
- Create a radio advert for your business. Talk to your preferred stations (by phone, chat or email) to find out more about rates and ad production.
- Create one or more 'locals only' offers and promote them with local advertising (flyers, radio adverts, inserts into free newspapers, print adverts, etc.)
- Post 'specials' on your website that help entice web visitors to click past the home page of your website.
- Review your customer service – is every customer met with a smile and friendly greeting? The way you deliver your product is one of your best sales tools.
- Consider employing a brand ambassador to promote your product. Your ideal choice should be someone, publicly recognisable, who embodies your business identity in appearance, demeanour, values and ethics and establishes your credibility for your target audience.
- Invite members of the press (local, national or international) to experience your product with the aim of getting some positive (and relatively low cost) media exposure.
- Develop advertising swag – (lower cost ideas include stickers or temporary tattoos) – with your business or product name on it that you can give-away at sports matches, festivals or trade shows.
- Look at out-of-home advertising options for your business – perhaps start with a local taxi or bus company. Give them flyers or pay for a small display board.
- Go green – advertise your company with a new type of mobile advertising that is cost-efficient, targeted and environmentally friendly. Think the billboard bicycle.
- Re-record your telephone answering messages – make sure that your 'on-hold' and 'not available' messages convey a sense of professionalism, personality and politeness.
More Business Tips
You'll find more business tips in our newsletter archive, alongside:
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Hawkdun Lodge.
Hawkdun Lodge in Ranfurly offers motel style accommodation beside the Otago Rail Trail. Its website is rather busy in design terms (perhaps too many different font, button styles and 'floating' elements), but its navigation, textual content and photographs are really rather good. Here are some of the aspects of the website that are particularly striking:
- Clear main menu offering easy navigation
- Wonderfully clear banner photography
- Nice use of 'people' pictures in the sidebar
- Prominent availability and bookings button
- Clear call to action to the 'Specials'
- Use of TripAdvisor reviews on the home page
- Light use only of optimisation techniques, but not ignored.
Nominate a Site
If you think a New Zealand travel or tourism website deserves a 'Top Tourism Site Award', let us know about it. (View further information about the award criteria).
About the Top Tourism Site Award
The New Zealand Tourism Guide confers a Top Tourism Site Award to websites that:
- Enhance New Zealand as a travel destination
- Publish useful and informative content
- Are laid out in a professional and aesthetically-pleasing manner
- Are designed effectively for the World Wide Web
- May demonstrate easy functionality, interactivity, originality, outstanding graphic quality and marketing reach.
We welcome any feedback — send your comments to: news@tourism.net.nz
Kind regards,
The Team
Ph 0800 14 65 49
www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Guide
Head Office: Level One, 534 Colombo Street, Christchurch