With nearly 29,000 registered athletes, supporters and officials, World Masters Games 2017 – held in Auckland in April – was the biggest multiple sports event that New Zealand has ever hosted.
At its conclusion, Auckland’s games was dubbed the best ever by the President of the International Masters Games Association, Kai Holm – a significant accolade for ATEED, which invested in and delivered the games on behalf of Council through a specially created subsidiary company.
Auckland turned on largely great weather, which added to the hugely positive vibe from the participants taking part in 28 sports at 48 venues across the region, from Woodhill Forest and Torbay in the north and west, to rural south Auckland and neighbouring Waikato (rowing and track cycling).
ATEED also focused on seizing the business opportunities created by having nearly 17,000 international visitors in our region. We delivered the first comprehensive business showcasing and networking programme in games history, helping Auckland businesses to connect with potential investors, partners and distributors.
The games’ financial impacts will not be known for some months, but independent pre-games analysis estimated they would deliver a GDP injection for Auckland of about $31 million, and about 244,000 visitor nights.
The success of the games was greatly aided by the support of partners. The Government made a financial commitment of $11m to the games, and our corporate sponsors contributed $4.6m as well as significant activation and leverage programmes which added to the Games experience.
We now look forward to an equally successful DHL New Zealand Lions Series 2017, with three games set for Auckland – a Blues match, and the first and third tests. We are again partnering with government agencies to deliver a programme to connect Auckland businesses with potential investors and partners who are following the Lions as supporters.
We are filming video destination content featuring Sir John Kirwan as an Auckland ambassador. The videos will be distributed through Lions series consumer channels, and assist in supporting social media activation with highlights for use in the live broadcasts to increase Auckland’s profile.
That dovetails nicely with our partnership with the All Blacks on an offshore brand campaign video launched in March aimed at international audiences. Within five days of the launch, the video received 120,000 views on social media. This campaign will feature on Air New Zealand’s inflight rugby channel from June.