Before the pandemic hit, social media was full of ‘influencer’ travel pictures. This year, Tourism New-Zealand fights social influence in their brand-new campaign. Brace yourselves.
If marketing campaigns have taken an empathic tone since the beginning of the pandemic, New-Zealand’s tourism agency decided to go another route. Not gentle but rather humoristic.
You could not have missed it. The latest campaign from Tourism New-Zealand went viral at the end of January. Called “Travelling Under the Social Influence,” the 2.5-minute video showcase comedian Tom Sainsbury as part of the Social Observation Squad (S.O.S).
From the “Hot Dog Legs” to the “Hot Tube Back Shot,” the squad’s mission is to avoid those pictures to spread over the internet and uniformize the vision people can have from the country.
We can see the squad leader escorting a couple down a mountain trying to create the “Summit Spreadeagle” or chasing after people taking the “Follow me Fedora” in a lavender field.
Already in 2018, a picture has revealed the darker side of those shots. In addition to long waiting lines, damages are also made to the environment.
Besides, New-Zealand is not the only place where such things happen. Amongst Instagrammers’ favorite spots, we can also count Valensol lavender fields in France or Cinque Terre in Italy. For that matter, this last place considers limiting the number of visitors.
Through the famous spot, the agency aims to showcase beautiful and well-known landscapes while promoting activities that might not be as famous, such as cycling in the vineyards.
Alongside the video, Tourism New-Zealand launched #DoSomethingNewNZ and the authors of the top ten pictures tagged with the hashtag will receive a $500 reward to spend during their next holidays in the country.
If you want to participate, you might want to hurry up! The challenge is only open until the 1st of March 2021!
We can only recognize the bold move from New-Zealand to fight social influence, especially during this difficult time for the tourism industry. We are sure, all of us will re-think what we share next time we are traveling.
In the atmosphere of the happenings, you can find below a selection of Cherrydeck members based in New-Zealand who can help you get out of clichés:
Travel photography was the topic discussed in Cherrydeck’s latest webinar. If you’re interested to watch it, you can discover it right here.
Want to discover more Cherrydeck’s members? Visit our search here. ?
