First prize: job in a new land

The idea behind Napier's highly effective "Win a Life" economic development promotion was stolen from Brazil and fine-tuned on the toilet.

The 2003 campaign captured international media attention by offering prospective migrants the chance to win six months' free accommodation and a new life in the Hawkes Bay city.

Win a Life's successor, "Win a Dream Job", is being launched today.

This time the prize is a specially created menial job: "assistant to the winemaker" at Church Road Winery, no experience necessary.

The creative brain behind the campaigns, Rick Hopkinson of Napier advertising agency Adplus, claims he thought up the idea on the toilet.

At the time, Hopkinson was reflecting on a radio news item about a city in unemployment-ravaged Brazil which had organised a competition where the prize was a much-coveted "job for life".

"It wasn't the actual article, it was the fact we were reporting this information in New Zealand," says Hopkinson. "It must have gone round the world. That's what caught my imagination."

Napier's competition created an equally strong international media buzz. The city council's economic development manager, Ron Massey, said questions were even asked in the Canadian Parliament after the Ottawa Citizen ran the story.

The newspaper called the high number of entries from locals interested in resettling in a small city across the world a "wake-up call".

By the time the competition closed, Massey had been swamped with 2700 entries from 64 countries. As well as the eventual winners - British electrical engineer Simon Pearce, wife Christine and their two sons - 50 other entrants and their families emigrated to Hawkes Bay as a result of the campaign.

Massey has effectively turned the promotion into a laborious direct-marketing campaign, diligently contacting all the entrants and matching their work skills to jobs available in the region.

He cheekily offered a consolation prize of a bottle of wine, a T-shirt and tickets to local tourist attractions to any of the unsuccessful entrants who visited Napier last year. To his surprise, 200 turned up at his office and 50 have now moved to the city.

"This is not really about the winning family," Massey says.

"This is about my database of thousands of people who expressed an interest in having a six-month working holiday here - in other words, they're thinking about New Zealand and this location.

"If people never hear from us again it's because they haven't got the skills we want, and they don't expect to hear from us because we don't tell them we will [contact them]."

With today's launch of "Win a Dream Job", Massey is confident of similar success. Britain's Times newspaper is running an article in its travel section this Saturday and the New York Times has also shown interest.

Hopkinson says the biggest challenge is picking the right winner, because they will find themselves under immense media scrutiny.

Living the life

Napier's 2003 "Win a Life" promotion captured international media attention and drew 2700 responses.

200 unsuccessful entrants visited Napier over the next 12 months.

90 per cent said they would not have visited New Zealand if it hadn't been for the competition.

50 couples and families have emigrated to Hawkes Bay as a result of the campaign.

The prize in this year's campaign, "Win a Dream Job", is six months' work at a winery.