From the Editor

By Matt Cooney, January 2, 2007 @ 7:41 am

While we were preparing the cover story in this issue, the 2011 Rugby World Cup suddenly became a very big issue indeed. It wasn’t so much a case of being overtaken by the story, but of being overtaken by a story we had hoped to help avoid—an argument primarily about cost and control. There’s so much more to 2011 than that.

The dramas over rugby stadia will hopefully be resolved by the time you read this. Opinion is divided at Idealog HQ as I write in mid-November, but we’re absolutely united in our belief that the World Cup can send our creative economy into overdrive. One thing I can say: whether the final will be played in a new harbourside stadium in Auckland, at Eden Park or Jade Stadium—actually, pretty much anywhere but Sydney—we’re right behind that decision. Now let’s get on and make the most of the biggest commercial and social opportunity New Zealanders have had in decades. On page 56, we set out the ways that we can leverage the event to help improve our cities, our business prospects and our way of life in Godzone. It’s also an opportunity to highlight to the world just what is special about these wonderful Shaky Isles, and Jake Pearce, the author of our Generation C cover story in Idealog #3, reckons that the story we’ve been telling about ourselves—100% pure—is 100% wrong. He’s done the research on what the world sees in New Zealand and suggests a new national catchcry; find out what it is on page 68.

Don’t agree? Say so on our website. But before you do that, take a look at two stories in this issue about marketers of genius. Geoff Ross shares what he’s learned about selling Kiwi attitude on page 100, and Josef Roberts, the under-the-radar guerrilla marketer who introduced New Zealanders to Red Bull, talks about his plans to sell Kiwi hamburgers to Americans on page 74. Roberts and Ross know their pitch, and it’s not just clean and green. They’re tapping into our unique traits and finding a story that people want to hear. Let’s make sure in 2011 the world hears our message loud and clear.