Youth market insight column by Justin Watson, General
Manager Marketing Communications
A strategic focus of all our activity is prioritising markets
and sectors for growth. As many of you will have heard during this
morning's webinar session, the Youth market is one of these key
sectors.
Aged 18-29, and accounting for nearly 25 per cent of annual
visitor arrivals, the Youth market represent significant
opportunity. They have the potential to stay longer, travel
widely and get involved in a range of activities, meaning they have
the potential to spend more while they are here. They also present
future tourism opportunities as they are more likely to return to
New Zealand later in life.
Since 2010, we have increased our presence within this
influential sector.
We have established a dedicated youth team, developed a specific
youth strategy and are working more closely with the youth focused
industry in New Zealand and off-shore, including STA Travel and the
Backpacker, Youth and Adventure Travel Association (BYATA) to
target youth in the UK, Germany, USA and Canada because these
markets currently present the biggest opportunities.
We are also focusing on transient backpackers in Australia to
encourage them to add New Zealand onto their travel plans given
they are so close. In the future, this will be extended to include
Asian markets.
While we know that a holiday in New Zealand is better than
expected for youth travellers, our research tells us that it is not
always high on their list when planning a trip. This is the key
barrier to travel that we are working to address.
All activity aims to improve the perception of New Zealand and
demonstrate how it is a fun and popular place to visit. This work
sits alongside the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign by showing
how it is the combination of activities, landscape and people that
make a uniquely New Zealand experience.
The central driving idea is the proposition that 'There is too
much to miss', both in life and in New Zealand. This has been
rolled out in our first activity Stories Beat Stuff.
Running for 12-18 months, Stories Beat Stuff challenges youth to
give up their stuff for the chance to win one of six experiences of
a lifetime. Asking the question, 'what would you trade for the
story of a lifetime?', the initiative is based on the idea that
amazing life experiences surpass material possessions for young
people.
Central to all campaign activity is the use of digital media and
social marketing to maximise the way young people share information
and create an ongoing dialogue amongst themselves across
markets.
The campaign pages on newzealand.com are fully integrated with
social media, facebook, twitter and youtube, which enabled the
winners of the first two experiences, Summer Rythym and Beaches and
Boats, to share their stories while in New Zealand, providing
a firsthand account of just how cool New Zealand is.
This was hugely successful over the first phase of activity
generating a combined 350,000 unique visits to the campaign pages
on newzealand.com and 100% Pure facebook page, as
well as more than 250,000 YouTube views.
The competition's next two experiences will be launched late
April and will widen the offer to four friends to increase the
opportunity to share their experiences across a wider online
audience.
To learn more about the Youth market, keep up to date with
latest activity and to access the range of resources developed to
help you engage with the market, check out our Youth sector
pages on our corporate site.