Kiwis talking on live billboard in Sydney

Expatriate Kiwis living in Australia are being reminded that there really is no place like home with Air New Zealand creating the ultimate platform for family pester power – an interactive outdoor billboard which allows Kiwis in New Zealand to send live messages to their loved ones in Australia.

Thousands of often unique and sometimes bizarre messages are appearing on a live billboard in Sydney and later in Melbourne as New Zealanders send notes to ex-pat Kiwis living in Australia to say hi and remind them that a visit back across the ditch is well overdue.

Air New Zealand this week launched the unique campaign entitled “Home. Sweet As’ via websites in New Zealand (www.homesweetas.co.nz) and Australia (www.homesweetas.com.au) to encourage ex-pat Kiwis to take a trip home, and is giving away 250 return flights to New Zealand as part of the promotion.

With an estimated 450,000 New Zealanders currently living in Australia, and approximately 700 more emigrating across the ditch each week, the billboard is expected to generate tens of thousands of messages over the month long period.

“Kiwis are great travellers and we’d like to encourage those ex-pats living here in Australia to get home a bit more often, flying Air New Zealand of course,” says Air New Zealand Marketing Manager Australia, Mark Street.

“Friends and family in New Zealand enter their messages at the homesweetas website, which then broadcasts their note live on the billboard. A web camera takes a picture of the message and sends it in an email to the ex-pat Kiwi it was written for. We hope that these personal notes will then encourage people to think about making a trip back to New Zealand.”

Since the launch of the billboard in Sydney earlier this week, New Zealanders have relished the opportunity to send messages to their Aussie-dwelling compatriots; ‘Hey Bro, hope you still know where Te Kuiti is – Pine Tree Country’ and ‘I miss our wine and fish & chips girly night chats ’ are just a sample of what has appeared in the last day.

Others messages are enough to make any homesick Kiwi pack their bags for a visit home; ‘The best birthday present we could possibly give you is a visit home. We hope the wish comes true’ and ‘I will love you till the cows need milking. Love, Barry.’

While Sydneysiders can now see the messages on their way to work, Kiwis can go to homesweetas.co.nz to see the most up-to-date messages online.

Air New Zealand is also giving away “home sick” bags to Kiwis who come down to check out the billboard. The bags include the kiwi icons of L&P soft drink and Pineapple Lump lollies, as well as postcards featuring emotive smells of newly cut grass and freshly laundered linen to really get Kiwis running for the airport. The fragrances will also be sprayed into the air around the billboard.

The promotion runs from 6th August to 31st August.

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