Education New Zealand, the government body responsible for promoting the country’s international education industry, has again found winning form, picking up another award in a string of domestic and international recognitions for its marketing efforts.
So far in 2019, the organisation has taken out top honours at the New Zealand Direct Marketing Awards, and individual gongs at international awards, the Golden Quills for international business communication, and the Revvie Awards. In 2018, ENZ won the PIEoneer Award for Marketing Campaign of the year.
“We recognised the need both for emotion and strategy”
“Over the last three years, we’ve been on a very considered marketing journey,” said Paul Irwin, ENZ’s general manager industry and students.
“Being a small country and a small agency means we’re agile. We can work with our government and education partners, and develop new initiatives in a nimble, forward-looking way that bigger countries struggle to achieve.”
Irwin explained to The PIE News the catalyst for ENZ’s campaigns came after research found many international students saw New Zealand as a lesser quality destination, despite it being ranked as the best country for ‘future proof’ education in 2017.
“We leveraged the Economist Intelligence Unit’s first ranking in our “Future Proof” campaign which has been highly successful, both in terms of leads generated and awards won,” he said.
“We’ve recognised the need both for emotion – connecting with our audiences through strong, emotive and authentic story-telling – and a strategic approach to the use of data,” Irwin continued.
Keen to show New Zealand’s tongue-in-cheek humour, ENZ launched its 1 Million Cents Scholarship campaign in 2017 to celebrate achieving one million followers across its social media platforms.
The campaign took out the Marketing Campaign of the Year at the 2018 PIEoneer Awards, with ENZ becoming the award’s first New Zealand winner.
Awards:
- Grand Prix, Nexus Supreme Award, Direct Marketing Organisation of the Year – NZ Direct Marketing Awards
- Fearless Marketer, Revvie Awards – Euan Howden
- Merit, Government Communication Programs, Golden Quills – Kate Barlow and Carole Van Grondelle
Nominations for the 2019 PIEoneer Awards are now open.