New Zealand’s year will be defined by what happens on one day this year. October 23rd, the date of the Rugby World Cup 2011 final.
Those who know New Zealand well,and people wanting to visit these islands in the South Pacific at the ‘bottom of the world’, share a fascination for the country and its people. Whether seen in pictures or told in travel tales, Aotearoa or ‘the land of the long white cloud’ evokes images of green hills, open spaces, and polite ‘kiwis’ with a friendly and casual demeanor. For those who love the country and many others including tourists and immigrants it‘s an exciting destination and a land of wonder.
Growth for growth’s sake is not something I admire. In business, for example, sustained high returns on capital are a better measure of performance. However, the New Zealand business culture is far too “think small”. Make a couple of million – relax, buy a holiday home and a boat.
I now reside in Evansville, Indiana, USA. People here ask me all the time “How on earth does someone from New Zealand end up here?” My answer is “It is a LONG story!”.
I began traveling at the age of 17 when I first represented New Zealand at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgium in [...]
How has New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, especially from the Marlborough region, become so popular with wine consumers in major markets such as Europe, North America and Australia, in the relatively short space of 30 years?
It is a combination of many factors, the principal ones being the status of New Zealand as a cool climate viticultural [...]
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts adds some storytelling juice to our preparation to the 2011 Rugby World Cup
Long, long before Europeans stumbled around the oceans in their clumsy ships, with little idea where they were, the Polynesians were colonising vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean. Generations of accumulated knowledge and wisdom were concentrated in the one lone navigator who barely slept for days as he focused all his being on bringing up the island in front of him. Every different ripple in the water surface, every variation in the twinkle of a star or sough of the wind, every movement of bird or fish, all these meant something to him, as he positioned himself under the rotating cacophony of stars he knew so intimately. The human world is full of many such stories.
My very first awakening to the power of brand, more importantly the power of a nation’s brand, came when I was six years old.
New Zealand is building a successful track record in several international markets with its wine exports. We can clearly see that the successful companies are the ones who understand the power of brand and channel. Unfortunately the old “colonial, sell it at the gate” culture still exists and if left to run rampant, this can destroy the good work of the few stars who lead the pack.
…that unsettling thing that happens to all travelling New Zealanders: your homeland vanishes when you leave it. ‘Zoetropes’ begins with a familiar experience: the one where you turn the page of a newspaper – in London or New York or Melbourne – and glimpse a heart-lifting capital Z out of the corner of your eye, only to make the immediately disappointing discovery that the word in question is Zimbabwe, or Ziggurat, or even Zoetropes.
