Kate Hawkesby: Don't let James Cameron direct our next Tourism NZ ads

Tourism NZ's new advertising campaign asks Kiwis to capture their favourite NZ spots. Photo / 123RF

COMMENT: I see Tourism NZ now want us to do their new advertising campaign for them.

It's not a bad idea - home videos shot amateur-style to make it look as natural as possible.

Kiwis in their natural habitats (the human variety of course) sharing their 'Good morning world' video from their favourite spot to social media.

The aim is to capture classic Kiwi life as raw and authentic as possible - it aims to be Tourism NZ's biggest overseas marketing campaign yet.

So what exactly might we expect from these videos? Well given they're trying to look after our 100 Per Cent Pure New Zealand brand I'm assuming that means they don't want us standing in a polluted river holding a turtle with a tummy full of plastic.

They want bright, cheery, happy - not to mention clean and green: New Zealand on show.

So we better hope Hollywood director turned Kiwi farmer James Cameron isn't shooting one of them.

He says New Zealand is not living up to its clean green image, telling TVNZ that our rivers and lakes are extremely polluted and we need to adapt to plant-based living. He'd like us to be meatless - us! The home of the sheep and dairy farmers... meatless.
So perhaps best he sit this campaign out.

And what about the social media influencers? Better keep a watch on them.
With the influx of influencer content these days we might not even notice if a tourist video was plastered in product placement.

They'll have to weed out any videos of people welcoming tourists while casually prepping their free food bag, holding their sponsored reusable cup and wearing their tagged collab gym gear.

The target is the high end tourist who's likely to stay longer and, crucially, spend more money.

So I guess not too many videos shot from the Kmart car park wearing our trackies and slippers, holding onto our happy meals for the kids.
Keep it classy NZ.

The marketeers want our "warm and inclusive" selves on show, shooting from our "epic landscapes" (though no polluted ones). We need the regions on show too apparently - maybe champion of the provinces Shane Jones in his KiwiRail hat waving with a welcoming smile from 90 Mile Beach?

Can we pull it off?

Well the campaign's success will be measured by website traffic, engagement rates, social media and the good old fashioned form of surveys. And hopefully, if we put our best foot forward, we might be awash with wealthy big spending tourists who want to flood our region's cafes and activities with cash - and over a decent amount of time.

And preferably off-peak. So, not too much to ask is it?