To celebrate World Kindness Day last Friday, Tourism New Zealand rebranded itself for 24 hours and dedicated its social media accounts to celebrating kindness.
The destination marketing brand changed its social names from 100 per cent Pure New Zealand to 100 per cent Pure Kindness and shared only good news stories that show kind-heartedness around the world.
The brand flooded its Twitter account with loads of stories celebrating heartwarming acts of kindness around the world.
The posts highlighted everything from a man offering his digger for free after floods devastated Northland, to a motorcycle driver stopping traffic to allow a mother duck and her babies to cross the road.
Ducks aren't great at following traffic signals. NZ drivers often stop for 'duck crossings' on country roads, busy city streets and even motorways. This Kiwi motorbike driver stopped traffic to let a duck mum and her ducklings cross. 🦆🦆 #PureKindness
🎥Reddit: PREC0GNITIVE pic.twitter.com/Lkmojpf1BV— New Zealand 🇳🇿 (@PureNewZealand) November 12, 2020
Brodie Reid, director of marketing at Tourism New Zealand, said kindness was more important in 2020 than ever.
“We wanted to take time on World Kindness Day to remind people that despite a challenging year, kindness and care is still at the core of us all,” she said.
“This is the first time ever we have rebranded our social channels with something other than New Zealand destination content. While this may seem a surprising decision for a tourism board, having a social platform denotes a responsibility, and we believe it’s a timely message to spread kindness.
“It’s not just landscapes that are important to New Zealand – it’s the people and the manaakitanga (respect, empathy and care) you can experience in New Zealand that makes the country special.”
Reid said social media is a space that is too often a breeding ground for stress, anxiety or unkind behaviour.
“But even witnessing acts of kindness can have a positive effect on people, so we hope these random acts of kindness spread a little hope and joy with the world,” she said.
“We hope we can use New Zealand’s social channels to highlight some of the amazing acts of kindness happening every day.”
Head over to Tourism New Zealand’s Twitter account to soak up all the kind content.
