Organization: Destination Queenstown
Location: Queenstown, New Zealand
Position: Media Executive
Objectives
Earn a published article in Kia Ora magazine.
Show how to travel with a light footprint in Queenstown, New Zealand without needing to sacrifice on experience. All while telling stories of the people and place.
Earn exposure for all participating tourism operators, as well as Destination Queenstown's electric vehicle partner, Polestar.
Execution
The journalist was based in the nearby town, Wanaka, so we gave him a Polestar EV to drive to Queenstown with where I would meet him and continue the next 3 days together travelling around in the Polestar EV. We wanted to showcase how easy travelling in an EV is in the Queenstown region with a Polestar EV thanks to it's long range, great handling on mountain roads and the itinerary included multiple places to charge along the way including the accommodations the journalist stayed at.
Focused on showcasing operators that are at the forefront of regenerative tourism experiences in the Queenstown Lakes region. Connecting the travel journalist with specific characters that can tell the story of their business and how it relates to the regenerative tourism goals of the district.
Results
The hosted media famil resulted in a front cover plus 6 page feature in Kia Ora magazine written by journalist, Ben Fahy, titled "Getaway for Good: Explore, indulge, and tread lightly in Queenstown."
The story included all participating operators except one.
The story included mentions of electric vehicle travel and charging opportunities, but did not mention Polestar directly.
Key Takeaways
Great stories are written when a the writer is passionate about the subject matter and truly enjoys the experiences they have.
Specific mentions in earned media are never guaranteed and we learned that mentions of brands such as, Polestar, were not an option in the Kia Ora publication.
