The New Zealand Story provides businesses with the ideal framework for crafting their New Zealand story. “I think we used to be muddled about what communicating our New Zealandness really meant. We kind of had an idea, but we were too focussed on New Zealand’s scenery. It was largely through engaging with the New Zealand Story material that I started to realise that people come to New Zealand for the scenery, but they go away talking about the people. We needed to find a way of communicating what that meant.
“The New Zealand Story helped us define the story we tell our prospective customers and brokers. Going from the open spaces which we all understand, we’ve moved to articulating open hearts and open minds as well. The open hearts is about the character of the McMullen & Wing team and the way we relate to people. Then as a world-leading yacht builder open minds is all about innovation and delivering on that promise in a uniquely New Zealand way,” says Michael.
There are more than 200 different assets in New Zealand Story’s library including images, videos, infographics and PowerPoint templates. Like many businesses adopting the New Zealand Story, McMullen & Wing first used an image from the library. “Our first foray into the New Zealand Story and up weighting our New Zealandness in our marketing was using a photograph from the asset library in our booth at the 2014 Monaco Yacht Show.
Our image of two kids sitting on a Pohutukawa tree looking out to the sea was really different from other booths. The response we got was so good that we decided to leverage more of New Zealand Story’s assets.
“Initially we tried to create a video using snippets from New Zealand Story’s video, but we couldn’t get it quite right. Everything seemed a bit flat, so we decided to use the New Zealand Story video in its entirety with the same music and voice over, and just cut in some of footage of our boats doing amazing things in beautiful places. We didn’t change the fundamentals of the video, just tweaked the balance a little bit to bring more of a nautical focus.
“We used the video during lunches with the brokerage community in Florida, London and Monte Carlo. Towards the end of the lunch I snuck up to the front and just hit play on our edit of the New Zealand Story video.
“It focused all their attention on what we were doing and centred the whole event. The brokers expected the usual boat builder pitch about some world class boats, but instead they were hit with a lot of material, imagery and inspiration about New Zealand. The material really focused on what New Zealand stood for, this was then followed up with the presentation about the way McMullen & Wing has been at the centre of New Zealand’s marine journey during the last forty or fifty years,” says Michael.
Most of McMullen & Wing’s business is generated through yacht brokers; meaning it’s essential the company stays front of mind. The challenge is always how to differentiate from other super yacht builders, as well as establish and grow long-lasting relationships with brokers. “Leading on from those broker lunches the conversations with them has shifted to one where I think they feel they understand me a lot better and our company a lot better. After those lunches, it feels more like I’m talking to a friend and they want to get behind what we’re doing, not out of charity but because they think it’s a really cool thing that we’re doing.
“Now I am preparing to head off to see the yacht brokers again, this time it will be one-on-one and the groundwork has been laid for this. They know what we are about. I don’t have to talk about the company. I can talk about the boats and be quite specific about what it is they are selling. I can actually get them to engage in the product that ultimately the brokers have to sell.
“Our current focus in progressing this work is on building up a set of tools for the brokers to draw from in presenting us to their clients. We have already provided them the New Zealand Story video and we are currently working on a new video to sit alongside that, which builds up the McMullen & Wing story in particular. And around each of the specific products we are promoting, we have included a taste of the New Zealand message. Our intention is that we build deepening and intertwined stories around our product, process and place and to provide this in electronic and printed form to give brokers flexibility in how they present us to each customer,” says Michael.