Helen spoke about how PWT tells Wellington’s story across a variety of social environments so that people want to experience the city for themselves and share it with others, as well as touching on the time and resources that goes towards PWT’s successful and engaging social media. She also delved into their Wellington Wishing Well Facebook campaign, and the importance of making a campaign highly sharable, while sticking within Facebook’s guidelines.

1. The coolest little capital on
Social Media
Helen Player
Digital Marketing Manager
Positively Wellington Tourism (PWT)
@HelenPlayer

2. Marketing the coolest little capital
 Mandate to market Wellington as a tourism destination
 Partly funded through the WCC Downtown Levy and a variety
of regional and commercial partnerships
 Key markets: Wellington, Domestic, Australia, International
 Digital team’s role: all digital assets, Downtown strategy, and all
digital executions across PWT
 Top performing Regional Tourism Organisation in New Zealand
in terms of website traffic, social media audience and online
revenue

3. Digital Strategic Objectives
 Tell a story of Wellington so that people want to
experience it for themselves and share it with others
 Increase access to information on Wellington via digital
channels
 Increase and leverage Wellington’s exposure on social
media
 Increase bookings, revenue and email conversions on
WellingtonNZ.com

5. Sharing Wellington’s Story Through Social
 “Showcasing the coolest little capital to the world in a way
that doesn’t just tell our city’s story to people, it shares it with
them.”
 Every campaign encourages engagement with Wellington;
- Welly Cable Chase: collect Wellington tips
- Wellington Christmas Cracker: chuckle at cheesy/lame Wellington jokes
 Every campaign we do incorporates a social element;
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- Wellington Christmas Cracker

6. Sharing Wellington’s Story Through Social Cont
 Social media is incorporated in all marketing materials
- eNews
- Print collateral
- Website
- Blog
 One piece of marketing is helping
extend the reach of another

7. Objectives of Social Channels
 Showcase all Wellington has to offer
 Drive traffic to WellingtonNZ.com and
WordontheStreet.co.nz
 Audience acquisition; eNews sign ups and revenue
generating users through Accommodation and Sights &
Activities bookings on WellingtonNZ.com
 Build brand advocates

8. Snapshot of Our Social Channels
Facebook.com/Wellington.NewZealand
Twitter.com/Wellington_NZ
Youtube.com/WellingtonTourism
Pinterest.com/WellingtonNZ
WordontheStreet.co.nz

9. Insert Facebook screenshot

13. Resourcing PWT’s Social Channels
 Social comes under Digital
− Digital team of four, two of which have Social Media responsibilities
− 40% of one position spent doing Social Media on day-to-day basis
− Marketing teams responsible for own Facebook advertising
− Up-skilling sessions for other Marketing teams
 During campaign mode, resource is up-weighted
− Resource split between front-end and back-end
 Budgets
− Relatively small
− Focus on incorporating social in all collateral/campaigns to get
organic pick up

14. Analysing PWT’s Social Channels
 Tools:
‒ Hootsuite and Tweetdeck
‒ PeopleBrowsr and Facebook Analytics
‒ Social media monitoring tool Meltwater Buzz
‒ Google Analytics: analysing behaviour once moved off social
media
 What we track for campaigns:
‒ Shares
‒ Sign ups
‒ Traffic from shares
‒ Like overlay
‒ Everything we can

15. The Wellington Wishing Well
 Idea:
‒ Turn Wellington’s iconic
Bucket Fountain into a virtual
wishing well
‒ 31 days, 31 wishes
‒ Money-can’t-buy and custom
wishes
 Aim:
‒ Acquire Likes and eNews
subscribers
‒ Promote partners, thus
increase CBD foot traffic

17. Mobile Users
 Issue:
‒ Facebook tabs not visible on mobile
‒ Sharing call-to-actions affected
‒ Bad user experience
 Considerations:
‒ Mobile usage of previous campaigns high
‒ Time on site on Facebook mobile site/apps
surpasses website
 Solution:
‒ A piece of code recognising device and
then redirecting mobile users to a HTML5
mobile alternative

18. Mobile Users
WellingtonWishingWell.com
Code to pick up device
Share CTA: WellingtonWishingWell.com
Mobile: m.WellingtonWishingWell.com
PC: Facebook.com/Wellington.NewZealand/app

20. Spot the Difference For a Prize

21. Facebook Call of Doom
 What do you do when Facebook calls? You change your
campaign right away.
 “We reserve the right to reject or remove Pages for any reason.
These terms are subject to change at any time.”
‒ You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action
using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page,
checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app.
‒ You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s
registration or entry mechanism.
‒ You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like
button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.

22. After The Call of Doom
 Changed sharing CTA so not incentivised (after 3 days)
 Removing incentive reduced percentage of users that
shared campaign
- 21% users shared when incentivised, 8% shared when not
incentivised.

23. Wellington Wishing Well Results
 61,825 wishes
‒ 12% via mobile
 6,476 shares
‒ 10% of unique users shared a wish
‒ 3% of mobile users shared compared to 12% of PC users
 21,301 fans/subscribers acquired
‒ 14,750 new Likes, 1,426 in first 24 hours
‒ 6,551 eNews sign ups
 Not a big budget campaign

24. Reasons For Wishing Well Success
 Had a mobile alternative; KPIs would have significantly
decreased if no mobile alternative
 Launched through PWT’s own marketing channels;
‒ KNOW eNewsletter
‒ Social media channels
‒ Partner organisations were encouraged to share
 Content highly sharable and clear CTAs to share
 Like overlay on PC version

25. Where We’re Heading
 Revisiting Social strategy
‒ Differentiating strategies between markets
‒ Domestic vs. Australia
‒ Education vs. activation
 Content plan
‒ Post by type; to get a balance between selling and inspiring
 Website redesign including mobile

26. Any questions?
About time for some more fun? June looks like a good
month!
Helen Player
Digital Marketing Manager
@HelenPlayer