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New Zealand Story hopes to bring Aotearoa’s narrative to the rest of the world

Each video provides a synopsis of the clever pieces of Kiwi magic, including established Kiwi company, Rocket Lab, the Ogo mobility chair, and the Kiwi invention Sealegs.

Director of New Zealand story Rebecca Smith says the company kicked the campaign off in the middle of last year based on research and perception research-both national and global. The research showed that Kiwi’s aren’t regarded for our innovation, science, technology and venture among our international peers.

New Zealand Story share these stories with our international counterparts. Including spearheads of local innovation and ingenuity, rocketry expert Peter Beck and his technocratic company Rocket Lab.

The stories are designed for social media, having been published across Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Vimeo. The videos are enabled to be viewed without the sound on as text appears on the screen. Each story is told from a third person perspective.

Smith states although it is early days, they are getting reasonable audience numbers. She hopes the stories can be leveraged through key channel partners such as businesses and government agencies.

“We see ourselves as a force of content, while others will share it more widely through their networks. We work with New Zealand immigration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organisations around the world and also businesses themselves. Using Ogo as an example – the advocates for elderly and disabled in Canada have picked up the story and shared it.”

New Zealand Story is ready to unleash three more stories over the coming weeks, including The Dunedin Study—story about Awaroa bay—and lastly the narrative of nobleman AJ Hackett.

On top of sharing New Zealand’s business ecosystem, New Zealand Story has additionally collaborated with Hunch and Kaleidoscope, creating a campaign: The new New Zealand story.

The simple, yet effective campaign is designed to make people re-think the stories that are unearthed about our country. It looks through the lens of the prosperous environment of fellow countries, in a bid to raise awareness that New Zealand isn’t the only spot of beauty, and it’s time to share a different narrative.

Matt Watts, creative director at Hunch, says, “of course we all know that there are other beautiful countries in the world, but once we struggle to tell them apart from New Zealand, it drives home the fact that we need new ways to tell our stories”.

Print executions use side-by-side comparisons to drive the message home, while video content and pre-rolls use the popular ‘penny drop’ technique.

Gary O’Neil, the marketing manager at New Zealand Story, agrees: “When we talk to New Zealand exporters they all have incredible stories of why they do what they do. We’re a country full of ingenious thinkers and doers – we just launched a rocket into space – and we’re so much more than simply a beautiful place. So we’re helping exporters tell the broader story of who we are as a country and what we have to offer the world.”

This story first appeared at StopPress.
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