1 November 2011

Newspapers work campaign stirs emotion for London Kiwis

A campaign that used New Zealand newspapers to bring Kiwis together has stirred emotions for London based Kiwis.

The campaign featured New Zealand newspaper front pages run simultaneously in London during the final week of the Rugby World Cup. It invited Kiwi expats to get their photo taken with the front pages (featured in the London Metro newspaper and on a digital billboard in Hammersmith) to go into a draw to win a return trip back home with Air New Zealand.

Those who entered the competition uploaded their photo to a website called www.kiwistogether.com and went into the draw.

Entries came in from expat kiwis originating from Invercargill up to Whangarei and Gisborne through to Taranaki. The winner was Steve Buck from Snells Beach near Warkworth, who is looking forward to coming home during the UK winter. He's going to check out his house in Christchurch, which was damaged in the earthquake, but which he has not seen since the earthquake happened.

Other comments from people who participated in the promotion were:

"I found out about the competition on Facebook and me, my sister and nephew went straight to St. Pauls to take pictures with our All Blacks clothing and accessories.
The hype in New Zealand during the world cup was amazing, it made me miss home even more, the amount of people we saw on video was the most I have ever seen in Auckland - and I've been there my whole life (the last 24 years)."
Raksha Tailor from Auckland

"My mum works for the Gisborne herald so she rang me telling me about the competition! She was sooooooo excited because I recently lost my job and couldn't afford to come home for Christmas so we both thought it was meant to be! She rang me crying trying to explain it to me but she was so excited and emotional she explained it wrong (mums are so funny when they are emotional) so luckily I picked up a metro and found the competition instructions in there.
I came out of the tube and couldn't find it for the first 15mins and when I finally found it my eyes welled up and I wanted to cry! First time in 5 years of living in London I have been noticeably homesick! Even though the picture was the shipping disaster my throat tightened up, my eyes got wet and I wanted to be home!!
Justin Lawton from Gisborne

I am very patriotic, especially since living in London for the last 8 years. I still have the paper, I can’t bring myself to throw it away yet, was quite special to see a little bit of home on the Metro. I was so excited, I showed everyone at work and cultivated my master plan with the 10minute window I had to create my photo.
Mandii Pope from Manurewa

ENDS

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