New Zealand Fashion Festival

Calling all New Zealand fashion followers. Ever wanted to attend a spectacular showcase of our most famous Kiwi designers and labels?

The NZ Fashion Festival is a fashion event with a difference. Whilst Fashion Week is primarily an industry trade event – closed to the public – the NZ Fashion Festival is entirely public orientated and was created to allow anyone to experience the atmosphere and excitement of New Zealand’s finest runway shows.

The event featured a range of nightly shows, a Business Breakfast with RadioLIVEs Karyn Hay and Xero CEO Rod Drury, a MAC Beauty Seminar and a massive range of events around the city as part of the NZFF Super City Schedule.

Porter Novelli was secured to raise awareness of the event and drive ticket sales.  We engaged participating designers, creative personalities and the event team to create interview and promotional opportunities to raise awareness.  A media relations plan was developed with unique coverage opportunities for major news outlets; key media personalities liaised with for exclusive coverage and widespread media pickup driven through on-the-spot releases of reviews and imagery from the event in real time.

Despite the high calibre of the festival, it was relatively unknown and the media climate at the time meant we faced a significant challenge. In the wake of the devastating Christchurch and Japan earthquakes, the military strikes against Libya and Prince William’s Christchurch visit, news outlets were saturated and fashion was a low priority.

Despite this, fashion lovers nationwide had their attention grasped prior and after the event, with coverage in Viva, Cleo, Remix and Fashion Quarterly. With a return of investment of 110:1, the PN team secured numerous pre-event interviews and event overviews on TVNZ’s Breakfast, TVNZ U and FOUR, while significant levels of radio coverage were obtained on The Edge, George FM, More FM, 95bFM, Radio Ponsonby and RadioLIVE. Hot enough? Not quite – PN then secured an MTV Style special feature on NZFF – right alongside New York, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks.

Coverage throughout the event was strong with photo spreads in the NZ Herald, and massive pre- and during-event coverage on NZHerald Online, 3News Online, TVNZ Online, Yahoo!Xtra, FashioNZ, Scoop, NZGirl, 247 Girl, GetFrank, Coup de Main, Gloss, Thread and The Edge Online.  Local print was also targeted, with articles in the Central
Leader, Papakura Courier and Albany and Bays News.

Porter Novelli team: Louise Wright, Will Seal