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Excellent results from MasterChef Australia

Tourism New Zealand

Wednesday 21 September 2011, 5:23PM

By Tourism New Zealand

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Al Brown and MasterChef Australia contestants during their visit to New Zealand. (Photo credit: Ben Cronje)
Al Brown and MasterChef Australia contestants during their visit to New Zealand. (Photo credit: Ben Cronje) Credit: Tourism New Zealand

A MasterChef Australia episode featuring New Zealand chefs and food stories was seen by approximately 1.2 Australian viewers and drove a 60 per cent increase in Australian traffic to newzealand.com, compared to the same time the previous week, peaking during the first hour of screening.

The 71 minutes of television coverage from this episode of Australia's most successful television show in history represented an equivalent advertising value of NZ$5.6 million.

Tourism New Zealand General Manager Brand & International PR Catherine Bates says the organisation used the existing 100% Pure You campaign with a well targeted fully integrated marketing and PR campaign.

"Now over a million more Australians know what fantastic food stories we have in New Zealand. Our research has showed that many of those who viewed the episode have a higher preference to visit New Zealand on their next holiday."

The Tourism New Zealand campaign ran from June-August and included social media, PR, digital and traditional media. Over 7,300 new Australian Facebook Likes were specifically attributed to MasterChef activity and PR activity around the episode that reached at readership of 1.8 million.

NZ chef Fleur Sullivan appeared in the show and estimated that for the four weeks following the episode airing in Australia she received an average of 15 calls a day from Australia. NZ chef Martin Bosley was "stunned by the reaction and especially so soon after it aired".

MasterChef contestants and crew were hosted at some of Wellington's most popular eateries, along with sessions with celebrity chefs Al Brown and Martin Bosley.

Positively Wellington Tourism Chief Executive David Perks described it as a 'real coup' for Tourism New Zealand and the host regions involved. "Wellington's epicurean merits are proving very popular with Australians so MasterChef was right on message for us."

Australia is New Zealand's largest inbound tourism market, accounting for almost half of all visitors.