In a world first, two countries were going head to head in The Amazing Race as notorious rivals Australia and NZ battled each other for glory.
To bring that rivalry to life, we came up with another world first: a real-life tug of war that stretched across the Tasman. With some rope, WiFi, huge video screens and a bit of Kiwi ingenuity we were able to connect shopping centres in Auckland and Sydney and stream the battles online simultaneously.
We brought the activation to life through battles between our local entertainment radio brand ZM and Aussie equivalent KIIS, as well as battles between our two soaps: Home & Away Vs Shortland Street, which drove PR and excitement around the event.
In addition to this digital activity, we ran a massive out of home and on air campaign which called on Kiwis to get behind their teams. We also partnered with ZM to produce a celebrity version of the race as online content which was viewed over 100k times.
The series launched as the number one show in its timeslot in TV2's target demo (and, most importantly, NZ won the trans-Tasman tug of war battles meaning national pride didn't take a beating.)