“I WILL LOVE YOU TILL THE COWS NEED MILKING. LOVE, BARRY”

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’ this week 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*.

The websites feature live coverage of the message board, as well as storing photographs of all messages sent in a gallery for viewing.

With an estimated 450,000 New Zealanders living in Australia, and approximately 700 more Kiwis a week adding to the total and crossing the ditch to live, 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.”

Air New Zealand is also giving away “home sick” bags to kiwis that 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.

Scientists and psychologists all over the world have long subscribed to the belief that the sense of smell is by far the most emotive, known to trigger memory and kick start feelings of nostalgia.

This notion is now being used in retail and commercial projects to engage consumers.

Terry Jacobson from ScentAir, Australia’s leading provider of ‘aroma’ solutions for brands and retailers helps explain the rationale behind the use of scent in this project for Air New Zealand.

“As humans, our sense of smell is deeply and intrinsically connected with our faculties for memory and emotion.”  “Combining personal messages and smell to provoke memories of home is a unique way of engaging the emotion connection we have with parents, loved ones, friends and places.”

“Advertising and visual stimuli are becoming increasingly less effective at grabbing attention.”  “Something as distinctive as the smell of fresh cut grass, particularly juxtaposed with a city centre thoroughfare like Martin Place, should prove very effective at triggering a response or  emotional connection with the event.”

The promotion runs from 6th August to 31st August and the “HOME. SWEET AS” Message boards are in the following locations: –

Sydney – Customs House Forecourt – 6-16 August 2007

Melbourne – Southbank – 17-27 August 2007

Sydney – Martin Place – 27-31 August 2007

Report by The Mole