ENZ invited eight international students to work with renowned Māori fashion designer Kiri Nathan to design a graduation gown (traditionally called a ‘garb’) that embodies the cultural values that make a New Zealand education unique. We partnered with Special to do what we do best — creating human-centred storytelling to include the cultural values of manaakitanga (care of people), kaitiakitanga (care of place), and the pōtiki spirit of youthful energy and finding a better way.

Our storytelling approach made sure that audiences would experience the gown redesign process through the eyes of our international students. 

The gown was treated as a canvas on which we could project the values and traits of the NZ education experience — a bespoke, beautifully crafted taonga that weaves together the best parts of many cultures.

The I Am NEW campaign, launched in June, has resulted in increased interest from international students to acquire a New Zealand education. To date, the campaign has a total exposure of 316 million impressions with 71 million engagements. It’s an epic relaunch for New Zealand’s international student community on the world stage.

The paid media campaign launched into ten markets: Brazil, China, Colombia, Germany, Japan, India, South Korea, Thailand, USA, and Viet Nam.