Leading international kiwifruit marketer Zespri has launched a major new branded promotional campaign in the US designed to raise awareness of Zespri kiwifruit from New Zealand and encourage more people to visit the country.
In partnership with airline company Air New Zealand and regional organisation Tourism Bay of Plenty, the Great Kiwi Adventure campaign centres around a competition set to run from 17 May until 31 October 2010, and open to anyone living in the US.
As part of the competition, consumers are invited to answer three questions about the health properties of kiwifruit and enter their contact details for the chance to win a trip for four people to New Zealand worth some NZ$10,000 (US$7,000).
The grand prize includes four round-trip, economy class tickets from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand with Air New Zealand.
Also included are domestic flights and ground transportation between Auckland and Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, where the vast majority of New Zealand-grown kiwifruit is loaded onto vessels and shipped around the world.
Winners of the Great Kiwi Adventure will also be provided with ground transportation to and from the airport in Tauranga, seven nights' accommodation and an invitation to take part in various on-the-ground activities and sample the local food and culture.
The winning entry will be draw some time around 15 November this year, with the lucky winners set to embark on their trip of lifetime in 2011.
Original thinking
The decision to focus on New Zealand as a country of origin for Zespri kiwifruit in the US market is notably different to the marketing strategy adopted by Zespri in Europe.
As Zespri Europe's head of marketing Jean-Louis Warnimont explains, subtle changes need to be made to this kind of promotional campaign in European markets.
'The European approach is certainly not the same as in the US. They position NZ kiwifruit as being the best of the world, we position as Zespri being the best of the world wherever the fruit comes from,' he told Fruitnet.com.
For the time being, the Zespri brand is not expected to be positioned in Europe in the same way as for the Great Kiwi Adventure.
However, Mr Warnimont did not rule out the possibility of joint promotions with the same partners in the future.
'We will have contact with Air New Zealand and the New Zealand tourism office to talk about collaborations that might offer consumers and customers buying Zespri the possibility to win a trip to NZ,' he continued.
He added: 'This year we are offering Spanish consumers buying Zespri the possibility to win a trip to the Maldives, but it could also have been New Zealand, or any attractive destination, without saying that Zespri is New Zealand.'
