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From the CE: Successful start to packed promotions season

Kia ora koutou,

We are diving into the busiest and most energising time of year – promotions, recruitment, and global engagements are in full swing.

In late August, ENZ teamed up with around 65 New Zealand education providers to successfully deliver our flagship New Zealand education student fair and education agent seminar in Bangkok.

It was fantastic to see record attendance at the fair that offered prospective students and parents hands-on experience of New Zealand’s learner-centred teaching style through five simulated classrooms. Don’t miss the full story about the impact of our promotions in Thailand in this newsletter.

Earlier this month, I was pleased to represent New Zealand and support international education in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the EAIE: European Association for International Education Conference 2025, which is among the most important global gatherings for international educators, government agencies, and academic leaders.

The conference was a valuable opportunity for New Zealand education providers to connect with peers, promote our offerings, and build meaningful partnerships.

With all eight universities and UP Education exhibiting at the New Zealand pavilion, we packed the week with meetings, events, and brand-building — forging new partnerships and showcasing the strength of our education system.

In London, I joined a thought-provoking panel discussion on evolving student demand at the ICEF Monitor Global Summit. It was an insightful discussion that prompted some great questions from the audience about the opportunities and challenges in this area for New Zealand.

Preparations are now in full swing for our attendance at the China Annual Conference and Expo for International Education (CACIE), where New Zealand is proud to be Country of Honour for 2025.

The conference is a prime opportunity to highlight our education partnerships in China and reaffirm our commitment to future collaborations with China.

I look forward to sharing more about our planned conference engagements in my next update – stay tuned!

Ēhara tāku toa i te toa takatahi, engari he toa takitini

Our strength does not come from us alone but as a collective

Ngā mihi nui,

Amanda Malu

Chief Executive
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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
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:
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.
A Brazil market update
This trend is mirrored here in New Zealand which has experienced growth from Brazil in all sectors over the last three years.
In the following market update, ENZ’s Senior Market Development Manager, Ana Azevedo, and International Market Manager, Julian Ashby, talk about recent initiatives that shine a positive light on the Brazilian market.
Internationalising postgraduate departments

The opening of the Academic Cooperation Seminar. Seated from left: Professor Jose Alexander Araujo, CAPES, Professor Hernan Chaimovich, FAPESP, ENZ’s Ana Azevedo and Caroline Bilkey, New Zealand Ambassador. At the lecturn is emcee Mr Pedro Marchi, former director of LAE in Brazil.

Following the recent hugely successful Latin American roadshow, ENZ hosted an Academic Cooperation Seminar – New Zealand & Brazil last month in Sao Paulo to promote collaboration between New Zealand and Brazilian universities.
Five of the eight New Zealand universities attended, sending nine senior academics to the event. From the Brazilian side, 17 universities were represented by 38 academics and international staff.
Ana said the aim of the forum was to capitalise on the recent announcement by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (their acronym is CAPES – which it should be noted is not the same as New Zealand’s CAPEs), which has established a programme to help internationalise Brazilian universities. The Program for Internationalisation of Brazilian Postgraduate Programs (BPP) is a successor to the earlier undergraduate programme known as ‘Science without Borders’.

Professor Caroline Daley of University of Auckland

CAPES is investing USD$350 million over the next four years to internationalise the universities’ postgraduate departments. Up to 40 Brazilian universities will be selected by CAPES to participate and proposals involving international partners are due in May.
For the next four years, this initiative will be the focus of the Brazilian universities.

From left: Professor Roberta Campos, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ - COPPEAD) and Professor Suzane Strehlau, School of Advertising and Marketing, ESPM.

The New Zealand Ambassador to Brazil, Caroline Bilkey, attended the forum as did representatives of FAPESP, the São Paulo Research Foundation.
“Successful proposals could greatly enhance New Zealand’s engagement with the region,” said Ana.
Ana acknowledged the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in contributing funding and logistical support to ensure the New Zealand academics could travel to Brazilian universities after the event to solidify partnerships.
Future Proof campaign shows high digital demand
Interest from Brazilian students in New Zealand can be further seen through the results of the Future Proof campaign that is running on multiple ENZ channels.
Brazil currently has the second most active users globally from the campaign with more than 10,000 views to the Study in New Zealand website and 1,000 referrals to New Zealand institutions’ websites.
“This demonstrates that whilst the Brazilian audience is generally very happy to view content, they are also engaging with the message to a higher extent than normal,” said Julian.
“The more we learn about Brazilian students from campaigns like this the more we can actively target those most receptive to our messages,” he said.
Activating media in Brazil
At the start of April, ENZ hosted two senior (rival) journalists from two of Brazil’s most influential media outlets, Exame and Folha de Sao Paulo, on a one-week trip through New Zealand.
The journalists sought to answer two key questions:
1. How had New Zealand become the #1 ranked country in the world for preparing students for the future?
2. How had New Zealand made international education such an important industry?
Julian noted the trip therefore provided an opportunity to highlight key messages to the Brazilian market.
“The journalists visited and interviewed teachers, principals, students (both New Zealand and Brazilian), officials and lecturers across the state education system and the results have been very pleasing,” he said
Some of the key observations about New Zealand’s education system from Fabio Takahashi of Folha de Sao Paulo were:
Ask three before me
Children are encouraged to ask their peers for help before approaching the teacher, the net effect of which frees teachers up for dedicated one-on-one time with students and demonstrates to students that teachers aren’t the only holders of knowledge.
Learning & teaching same word in Maori (Ako)
A common refrain from schools is that students aren’t there to be taught but to learn, and that teachers foster this from day one. Fabio latched onto the Maori word that symbolises this – Ako.
Schools as staging grounds for tertiary study
High schools provide a high level of autonomy to students in picking their own career path and mirrors tertiary study (choose courses, get credit). This is unheard of in Brazil.
Freedom vs pets
One of the most powerful interviews conducted was with a year 13 Brazilian student, who started off stating that NZ teachers were authoritarian and cold compared to the more ‘huggy’ first-name-basis Brazilian teachers. However, as the student talked, he began to reflect on how much independence and responsibility he had in New Zealand bringing him to the realisation that his life in Brazil was like that of a pet…his parents fed him, housed him, ran him around, made all his choices for him, while in New Zealand he was free to go where he liked if he could figure out how to get there and how to pay for it. You could see the pride he took in this epiphany that he was actually free and capable of making life choices.
Toddlers with tools
As you’ll see from the photo in the published article above, the other thing that impressed Fabio was the 4-year-olds armed with real saws and hammers!
The answer then for how we do it was revealed through every level of the education system. Children are encouraged to be active learners and this is achieved through a national curriculum that allows flexibility for each community to adapt aspects of education to their own surroundings.
Fabio produced a full-page article in the largest national newspaper in Brazil that fully articulates why New Zealand is the #1 country in the world for preparing students for the future.
Articles published to date include: “A paradise for learning”, “How teens build successful New Zealand businesses”, “These two MBAs in NZ have 100% employability”, “Brazilian lecturer and PhD student create start-ups in NZ”.
The reach of Exame’s online readership is in the 20 million range whilst the print edition of Folha De Sao Paulo enjoys 300,000 subscribers.
For comments or questions on this report, please contact Ana ana.azevedo@enz.govt.nz (Brasila-based) or Julian julian.ashby@enz.govt.nz (Wellington-based).
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NZEA winners
Matt Penney 2 0
Faith FP7
Education sector delegation for Dubai Expo
The delegates from ENZ, the University of Otago, the University of Waikato, Victoria University of Wellington, Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and private sector education technology companies ByteEd and ARA Journeys will be in Dubai between 22 and 25 January 2022.
Expo 2020 Dubai is a global trade fair currently being hosted by Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. It was scheduled to get underway in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ENZ Chief Executive Grant McPherson said the New Zealand Government’s recent announcement that it will relax border requirements for fully vaccinated New Zealanders and foreign nationals in stages next year was a clear signal of the country returning to more normal times.
“The prospect of more open borders in the coming year is a timely reminder of the opportunities that exist to build awareness of New Zealand’s unique education offering,” said Mr McPherson.
“The Expo is a great platform for New Zealand’s education sector to kick start this process at a global event.”
Mr McPherson said the involvement of two leading education technology companies was particularly pleasing as both were introducing leading-edge augmented reality (AR) products to the Expo audience.
ByteEd will be drawing on its web-based platform for teachers and students and introducing AR software to kits for STEM subjects – science, technology engineering and mathematics.
ARA Journeys will profile its award-winning games, which will stream into the New Zealand Pavilion from the company’s Auckland headquarters to offer the full interactive experience to visitors.
“Technology is a core building block for future education initiatives and a key element of the country’s international education strategy,” Mr McPherson said.
“The participation of ByteEd and ARA Journeys at this major international event is a reflection of the forward-looking strategies of both these companies.”
While in Dubai, the delegation aims to foster government and institutional connections and build relationships with agents and students.
The four-day programme, facilitated by ENZ, will centre on Expo 2020 Dubai’s International Day of Education on 24 January 2022. It will include a networking function, seminars and face-to-face meetings with key stakeholders hosted at the New Zealand Pavilion.
Find out more about Expo 2020 Dubai.