NZ PM used PR agency to get onto Letterman show
New Zealand prime minister John Key is facing a political row after it emerged a PR agency was used to secure his much talked about appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman two years ago.
Key appeared in September 2009, presenting the top ten reasons to visit the country.
http://youtu.be/eXaizTqSRWw
Key, who is also the country’s tourism minister denied any payment was made to get him on the show. His appearance came weeks after Tourism New Zealand put Hill & Knowlton’s US office on a retainer.
The issue became a major topic at a press conference held by the PM this week.
http://youtu.be/kiAzHZ69P2k
When questioned whether Hill & Knowlton was brought in to get him on TV, Key said: “It wasn’t my understanding.
“There was no payment made to Letterman. Tourism New Zealand have a PR company that are on a retainer, regardless of what I do. As minister of tourism it was a good thing to do. In my view it promoted New Zealand. There wasn’t a payment made to get us on the show. These people work permanently for us, there’s a variety of different projects they work on,” he said.
According to the New Zealand Herald, the agency was paid between $5,000 and $10,000 to organise the appearance, estimated by Tourism New Zealand at about a third of the retainer for that month.
It also emerged that a tape of Key reciting 10 reasons for the late-night host to visit New Zealand was allegedly sent to Letterman.
“There was a joke tape that was done in my office, but it was nothing to do with Tourism New Zealand.” Key said he didn’t know whether the tape was sent to Letterman but said it “hopefully” had.
Since the appearance, the agency is said to have organised America’s Next Top Model host Tyra Banks’ filming visit to New Zealand as well as filming of The Biggest Loser in the country.
umm, what’s wrong with using PR to get on Letterman. Good on him, great win for New Zealand tourism.
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Doesn’t seem at all unreasonable to pay someone to organise this clever and entertaining appearance.
And to do it for $5 -10k, seems like very good value to me.
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This is new? Didn’t we all know this appearance was the result of brilliant PR negotiation?
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Why is this even news? Full disclosure – I am both a PR practitioner, and an Australian. A double-kiwi-negative, but even then, I don’t get why this is news.
So they have H&K on retainer for Tourism NZ, and H&K arranged an appearance that by all accounts, seemed to go over really well. If it’s supposed to be a ‘your tax dollars at work thing’, I’d say the return for 5k invested in terms of tourism revenue would be more than covered if a single person booked themselves on Air New Zealand and spent a few days at a decent hotel.
I don’t get the controversy….
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The press conference is so cringey! I can’t believe he is the Prime Minister of NZ and he still blushes when asked uncomfortable questions by journalists..
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This was money well spent if you ask me!
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I know New Zealand is a small place, but surely the NZ media contingent understands how you might secure an appearance on a US talk show?
A PR agency or talent agent would ‘pitch’ a talent booker on a show. If the show likes what they see (and the quirkiness/ timing of issues is always a big factor), the “talent” is invited on the show. Good on H&K in the US for arranging this – good value. It’s the same process that Tourism Australia’s agency, Flieshman-Hillard in Chicago undertook when they pitched Oprah….and resulted in Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure.
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??? What’s the problem? – Great feature for the cost… (hold that up against what Tourism Australia spent to get on Oprah??)
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i don’t think anyone’s really disputing the benefit – the point is whether a Prime Minister should have to effectively pay anyone to appear on a television show, no matter how high profile it may be
ie. isn’t there an inference that this is ‘beneath’ the office of PM?
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Wow… must be a hell of a slow news day in NZ! Moaning about a $10k investment to get that sort of exposure in the US market. Staggering.
How much did Oprah cost again?
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More people watch Letterman every night than live in NZ*. Letterman gets paid more, and probably has more power in the world.
It would be beneath Letterman to do a guest day as PM of NZ, not the other way round.
Great PR piece, great value for money, and, well, bloody great, really!
*OK, that’s a guess, but certainly more people watch it than the NZ PM’s press conferences.
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Letterman only had him on so that he could laugh at his accent. It was a wun wun
for both parties.
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C’mon you critics, if he hadn’t used a PR company chances are Letterman would’nt even know where NZ was; or that it wasn’t just the fictitious location of Lord of the Rings
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He’s also the Tourism Minister.
I see no problem here at all. Quite the opposite. I smell a political agenda to this story.
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the truth is that the PM’s media advisers should have been able to secure this without H&K’s help, and cost
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I don’t think so Sven….I worked in this space in the USA for many years and I can tell you that I doubt if the ‘talent bookers’ would even take a political spin doctors call!
The PR agency did a great job and it was a publicity coup for New Zealand. It’s incredibly small minded and naive of the NZ media contingent to question this – it’s all part of a NZ tourism brief.
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Sven. Get back to the franking machine.
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At least Letterman did not have to interview another South Pacific / Oceania head of State. That would have been a culture shock, and damaging to tourism
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PR company of tourism radio have organised it, thats fine. and its a good value for the money.
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The inference that a PR conpany did what it was employed to do was shocking.
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