Update on the New Zealand Story – Our shared story to support export growth

The New Zealand Story project is led by the chief executives of Education New Zealand, Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

The Story will:

• Communicate New Zealand’s values and personality

• Feel and be authentic

• Feel different to other countries’ stories

• Move us beyond place (our landscape)

• Be a foundation story from which other stories can grow

• Support growth in export earnings.

It will help communicate New Zealand’s distinct and unique attributes to international audiences around the world.

Education New Zealand Marketing and Channel Development Manager Kathryn McCarrison says that while New Zealand has a great reputation in a number of areas, “the New Zealand Story is an opportunity to sharpen and highlight our country’s many qualities.

“What we have got is a gap between how international audiences see us and the ideal positioning we need to ensure the world ‘buys’ New Zealand.

“The New Zealand Story will fill that gap so that exporters don’t have to spend half their meetings in international markets explaining why New Zealand is great. They can get straight into saying why they are great.”

The New Zealand Story will be a foundation for more specific stories about individual businesses and sectors like education. It will help give the stories told in international markets by individual companies and organisations a common voice when talking about New Zealand.

The Story has been tested and accepted by businesses and consumers in six markets –Australia, China, USA, Jakarta, India and Germany.

Leaders from New Zealand’s primary sectors, manufacturing services, export education, Māori and wider government have also had extensive input into the story’s formulation.

The project is now in its creative development stage. A toolbox for industry will be developed that will include images and videos to help ‘NZ Inc’ partners (from both the public and private sector) tell a consistent story about New Zealand across different sectors and in very diverse international markets.

This is an exciting development in the marketing of New Zealand globally and one that will help us all tremendously in raising the profile of our own sectors overseas.