Innovation Awards 2016 Zine

INNOVATIONAWARDS.ORG.NZ 3 7
INNOVATION IN MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
HAKA TOURS
Fact: tourism is now New Zealand’s biggest industry.
Fact: competition among companies for tourist money
is fierce. Another fact: Auckland-based Haka Tours is
one of the most innovative players in the market.
Offering adventure, snow, and mountain biking
tours – among a plethora of other options – the
company sounds a lot like other tour operators, at
least on the surface. But what sets it apart is its unique
'buildable' tours where clients can create their own
entirely unique, once-in-a-lifetime holiday experience.
The company was created in 2006 by Ryan Sanders,
who was eager to “escape the dull working life of
corporate banking”. Sanders had previously been a
professional rugby player overseas, but a snapped
Achilles tendon brought an end to his sporting career.
To get the adrenaline flowing again, he set up an
adventure tourism company featuring a taiaha-wielding
anthropomorphic kiwi as its logo.
With Haka Tours’ model, a customer picks a base
tour – such as a tour of the North Island or a trek through
Fiordland – and can then tack on several different addons,
such as a swim with dolphins or whale watching or
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even zorbing. A 'seat' is then secured for a $99 deposit,
with the rest of the balance to be paid 30 days before
the tour – whenever that may be. With tours limited to
a maximum of 16 people, all facets – accommodation,
transportation, meals, etc. – are taken care of, and the
company supplies guides who know Aotearoa as well as
the back of their hands.
Although it’s an established brand, especially in the
UK and Australia, a strong social media presence is a key
component of how Haka Tours promotes itself in an everexpanding
tourism market. Smart online promotions
have been a key component of the company’s business
strategy from the very beginning – for example, when
Haka Tours first launched in the UK, it ran a YouTubebased
search for “Britain’s craziest student,” an attempt
to feed off the popularity of Jackass. The promotion
turned out to be a success, with about 50 percent of the
British customers who booked during its first six months
doing so because of the campaign.
Especially active on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube,
an important element of Haka Tours’ social media and
marketing strategy is user-generated content. Primarily
coming in the form of pictures people upload of things
they’ve done on their trips, it helps sell the ‘coolness’ of
the brand in a very relatable way. After all, we often decide
to do things because our friends and family have done it.
Basic psychology/peer pressure.
That peer pressure means Haka Tours is able to
focus on its social networks as a way to advertise its
products. It uses sophisticated targeting techniques to
find potential customers who have shown interest in
travel and other relevant demographics and it shows
them content from customers who have already been
on a trip. And in another clever move, rather than pay
the exorbitant fees to advertise its wares beside popular
search terms on Google, it instead signed deals with the
big tourism websites to represent it.
But is the approach working? Aside from the Innovation
Awards, the company has also won the 2015 TNT Golden
Backpacker Awards for Best Accommodation, were a
2015 Westpac Business Growth Grant winner, captured
the Business Excellence and Emerging Leader prize at
the 2015 Tourism Industry Awards, were the Rankers
Supreme Award winners in 2015, and won the Excellence
in Marketing category at the 2015 Auckland Business
Awards. Oh, and they also have about 10,000 Instagram
followers, and 35,000 Facebook fans.
So, the answer is yes.
EVALUATOR'S COMMENTS
It was really good to see your inspirational story and to hear
about your use of social media to effectively make people
fall in love with your brand. Awesome entry and terrific
business growth.