Ask New Anything

Campaign page: https://www.studyinnewzealand.govt.nz/asknewanything

NZ’s second big global digital campaign of 2019 launched on 7 October with our students at the heart of it.

The campaign will be promoted digitally in our key markets for 8 weeks. Campaign-related content and messaging will remain relevant and live on our channels for the foreseeable future.

The campaign will be the first time the refreshed Think New brand has been widely used in digital channels.

• Campaign strategy
• Creative concept
• Technical execution
• The campaign in China
• Messaging and brand
• Sector representation and localisation
• Campaign toolkit

 

Campaign Strategy

The main objective of the campaign is to challenge perceptions of New Zealand by increasing awareness of the country as a high-quality study destination. The campaign aims to achieve this by inviting our target audiences in 14 international markets to question what they know about New Zealand.

Key markets that will be reached by the campaign are:

• Brazil
• Colombia
• France
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Japan
• Korea
• Philippines
• Thailand
• UK
• USA
• Vietnam
• Indonesia

The campaign aims to increase New Zealand’s standing as the preferred study destination amongst our target audiences in these key markets.

For more information about ENZ’s target markets and the general digital campaign strategy, and New Zealand education providers can access the 2019 ENZ Digital Marketing Calendar on IntelliLab. 

The creative concept and technical execution of this campaign will push ENZ into new territory for its marketing campaigns and award-winning digital strategy. 

Utilising 100 short videos, a variety of digital media placements, Tohu the chatbot, a range of social media channels including a peer-to-peer Facebook group and Instagram Live sessions hosted by our Kiwi Ambassadors, the campaign embodies the authenticity and bold NEW thinking of the Think New brand. 

A bespoke campaign strategy has been developed for China, making use of the same campaign creative concept and content, but delivered through the channels we know our audiences in China use and interact with the most. 

ENZ invites and encourages our New Zealand education sector partners and education agents to participate in the campaign by sharing content and aligning your own messaging with those of the campaign and the Think New brand. 

The campaign tool kit below provides more information around how your organisation can leverage the campaign. 

Creative concept

Brand research tells us there is generally low awareness of New Zealand internationally, and where there is awareness it’s often based on incorrect perceptions of quality.

The creative concept of the Ask New Anything campaign seeks to address this by answering prospective students’ burning questions authentically and honestly, using unscripted video responses from current international students.

We started by researching the most used Google search terms relevant to studying in New Zealand, as well as the most asked questions on our Study in New Zealand chatbot Tohu. We combined this hard data with anecdotal questions from prospective and current students around what they want to know/what they wish they had known, and key brand messages we hoped to get across to our audiences.

From this we narrowed down to a list of 100 questions and filmed videos with international and New Zealand students, alumni, a teacher, a parent, and a New Zealand employer providing the answers. These videos form the basis of the campaign.

We also know that word of mouth is a key influence on student decision making. The Ask New Anything campaign not only offers pre-recorded Q&As with current students, but also gives prospective students the opportunity to talk directly to current students through a new Facebook group and scheduled Instagram Live events.

All of this results in a much more interactive campaign than anything ENZ has previously done. We’re not broadcasting a message to students; we’re asking them to start a conversation, putting prospective students themselves at the centre of the campaign.

Technical execution

 A typical digital media campaign uses creative digital ad placements on social media, relevant websites and search engines to drive traffic through to a campaign landing page on a website.

Ask New Anything goes well beyond this, using new technology and a broad range of social media tools to be a true omni-channel campaign. The resulting immersive and pleasantly unexpected experience will help the Think New brand stand out.

The marketing activity and technology being used in this campaign includes:

• Tohu the chatbot – Tohu was launched on the Study in New Zealand website in 2018, on Facebook Messenger in early 2019, and on the NauMai NZ website in July 2019. Tohu is the centrepiece of the Ask New Anything campaign as it represents the technology through which prospective students can really ask any question they want. From the launch of the Ask New Anything campaign, Tohu will be able to respond to 100 of the most frequently asked questions with one of the short videos created for the campaign
• Facebook group - Should a question be asked that Tohu cannot answer, prospective students will be invited to join a Facebook group where they can ask real students their questions in real time. The Facebook group will be managed and moderated by our Kiwi Ambassadors.
• Instagram Live – Throughout the campaign, a select group of Kiwi Ambassadors will host a series of Instagram Live events. These events will be designed and scheduled to suit the key international regions we are targeting in the campaign.
• Campaign landing page – There will be a campaign landing page on the Study in New Zealand website. Tohu the chatbot will be the main focus of this page.
• Social media – Beyond the Facebook group, Instagram Live sessions and use of Tohu on Facebook Messenger, all of ENZ’s student-facing social media channels will be driving the campaign messages. Campaign content will be shared on Facebook, and YouTube and Instagram will feature strongly for both organic and paid media content.
• Database marketing – The database marketing strategy for the campaign ensures we are reaching all our currently engaged audiences, and nurturing new leads throughout their decision-making journey. Personalised email campaigns will be sent to members of the Study in New Zealand, My StudyNZ and NauMai NZ communities, and to anyone who signs up throughout the campaign period.

The campaign in China

Because our audiences in China use different digital platforms to our other markets, the Ask New Anything campaign will follow a different strategy in China. 

Separate research has been undertaken to identify the most-asked questions for prospective international students in China. Based on this, the most relevant videos will be translated into Chinese and integrated into a campaign rollout on our China platforms:

Paid media:

• WeChat
• Zhihu (Zhihu is China’s version of Quora. In classical Chinese, "Zhīhū" means "Know?". Chinese-language internet users nowadays increasingly resort to Zhihu for expert knowledge and insights into various topics.

Owned media:

• WeChat
• Weibo
• Youku
• Zhihu
• studyinnewzealand.cn website

Tohu the chatbot does not exist on our Chinese platforms, so the China Ask New Anything campaign makes use of the question/answer format in a different way, posing questions to our audience and then supplying key information based on their response.

On the Zhihu platform we will post questions for both Kiwi Ambassadors and users to answer. Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) will also be recruited to support the campaign and both ask and answer questions about studying in New Zealand.

Messaging and Brand

The campaign concept and the technical execution of the campaign both contribute to the overall brand message of ‘I am New’. It showcases our innovative new thinking and captures New Zealand’s values of societal openness, transparency and manaakitanga.

Through this campaign, we want to show that New Zealand is an inclusive, collaborative and progressive environment where students are challenged and supported to reach their full potential.

Our new Think New brand strategy and creative approach position our international education brand for success and redefine what a quality education looks like and means.

Sector representation and localisation

The 100 question and answer videos have been carefully planned to ensure a good global representation of our markets. Care has been taken to match the talent to questions based region. So where a question is most important to a certain region, the talent has been matched to that region to ensure the most relevant response.

The videos feature 18 different individuals representing a spread of sectors and markets. We have included students from all the key markets we are targeting in the campaign. A teacher, employer, Kiwi student and parent are also included.

In the Facebook group and Instagram Live sessions, prospective students will be able to converse with Kiwi Ambassadors in local language – either directly or with the help of Facebook’s automatic translation technology.

Toolkit

Throughout the campaign duration New Zealand education will have an increased digital presence in the 13 target markets listed above.

New Zealand education providers and education agents are encouraged to leverage this campaign activity for your own marketing strategies.

Here is a toolkit of resources and suggested actions to help you get started:

• Ensure your institution profile on the Study in New Zealand website is up to date. Follow these step-by-step instructions to find out how. Please note you will be required a login to access this link.
• Register for the ENZ Brand Lab. There are over 1,000 images, videos and more available on the Brand Lab for you to download and use in your marketing.
• Read this article about how to leverage ENZ digital campaigns. You will need to be registered and signed in to the Brand Lab to access it. 
• Share the Q&A videos from the campaign on your social media channels. ENZ will be creating a spreadsheet with all the YouTube links to make this easy for you navigate and choose the most relevant videos for your audiences. Watch this space or sign up to the Brand Lab to get a notification when this becomes available.
• Download ENZ’s 2019 Digital Marketing Calendar from IntelliLab. The calendar explains our key dates and strategies for each of our target markets. You will need to be registered and signed in to IntelliLab to access this.
• If you are an education agent, join ENZ’s AgentLab. This new platform was launched this year. Gain access to online training courses, news, webinars and ENZ updates.