It will go down as one of the most difficult times in Australasia's tourism history: the need to get people travelling again post-COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, while dealing with not only yo-yoing restrictions but also the fact that the income had dried up. There were no tourists, there was no money to spend.
Inevitable government assistance did inject some life back into the industry as Kiwis began to travel around Aotearoa and Aussies traveled the vast landscape of Australia. Then, eventually - and just for a while - we ventured into each other's back yards thanks to the quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel bubble.
New figures released to Newshub by Pathmatics, a digital marketing intelligence platform, have revealed just how much some of the biggest brands in travel were spending in an effort to entice us away from our homebound bubble and get us exploring again.
The data shows how much Air New Zealand, Qantas, Tourism New Zealand and Tourism Australia each spent on digital media campaigns since January 2020.
This graph showing the total spend of all four organisations tells the story of the pandemic. As restrictions tightened, so too did the wallets of these advertisers.
For example, in April 2021 Tourism NZ didn't spend a cent on digital marketing. In April 2020, Air NZ spent just $500. It was also the lowest spending month for Qantas, which spent just $3400, while Tourism Australia spent just $400 in March of 2020.
In some cases the low spend didn't necessarily mean low reward.
When comparing Air NZ and Qantas, it's important to remember the figures for Qantas' spend includes money spent in Australia on their domestic market, which is much larger than that of New Zealand.
The best impressions
An impression is when an ad appears on someone's social media feed. It doesn't take into account whether or not it was clicked on.
To make this data easier to understand, we have calculated the cost per every 100,000 impressions, rather than cost per impression.
Think of it this way: This information will tell you how much it cost each company to reach an audience approximately the size of Dunedin.
Tourism NZ:
100% Pure New Zealand: Planning a trip? Why not change it up with something new? There's a whole North Island of new stuff to explore. #DoSomethingNewNZ
Impressions: 33,000,000
Spend: $81,000
$245.45 per 100,000 impressions
Tiaki, 100% Pure New Zealand
Impressions: 5,700,000
Spend: $66,000
$1157.89 per 100,000 impressions
Do something new, New Zealand
Impressions: 27,000,000
Spend: $65,000
$240.74 per 100,000 impressions
Air NZ:
Feel the energy of Rotorua and be in to win
Impressions: 33,700,000
Spend: $81,000
$240.35 per 100,000 impressions
Australia from $159
Impressions: 33,000,000
Spend: $81,000
$245.45 per 100,000 impressions
Keen to take off around NZ? Flights are on sale for $49
Impressions: 25,000,000
Spend: $60,000
$240 per 100,000 impressions
Tourism Australia:
Remember holidays? They're back with half price flights
Impressions: 11,600,000
Spend: $199,043
$1715.88 per 100,000 impressions
Australia, your country needs you to take a holiday
Impressions: 11,600,000
Spend: $199,043
$1715.88 per 100,000 impressions
What Australia needs right now...
Whether an epic adventure or beach break holiday here this year is exactly what you (and Australia) need right now
Impressions: 37,000,000
Spend: $162,183
$438.33 per 100,000 impressions
Qantas:
Your dream holiday could be a shop away
Impressions: 37,700,000
Spend: $155,000
$432.98 per 100,000 impressions
Join Qantas business rewards for free
Impressions: 15,500,000
Spend: $64,000
$434.83 per 100,000 impressions
Are you getting the most out of your credit card points?
Impressions: 15,000,000
Spend: $62,000
$435.29 per 100,000 impressions
The data also shows that spending in June 2021 was the highest it's been for these four organisations with $2.5 million being spent on digital advertising. April 2020 was the worst month for advertising spend with just $52,300 spent in the entire month, and $44,000 of that was spent by Tourism Australia.
