Mt Cardrona Station embraces local community in new brand campaign via Feast Creative
When it comes to ‘keeping it local’ a group of Wānaka and Queenstown creatives have gone the extra mile in a brand video campaign for their client Mt Cardrona Station.
Charging Queenstown-based strategic branding studio Feast Creative to deliver on a strategy that would tell the story of the station and its people, the stage was set for an innovative and emotive storyline that embraced its local community on so many levels.
Mt Cardrona Station, a 400-hectare Alpine village development on a sunny plateau sitting between the valley township and Cardrona ski area, is creating an alpine village like no other on just 29 hectares of the land.
The rest of the magnificent Central Otago landscape is set aside for homeowners to enjoy, with 30km of professionally engineered walking, biking and hiking trails winding their way through golden tussocks, alongside historic water races and stunning lookout points.
The brief from developers Mt Cardrona Station, which has owned the land since 2004, was to tell the local story of their vision for the land and the village they’re creating.
Says Chris Morton, co-owner and director, Mt Cardrona Station: “Our brief was to go way beyond a standard property ad, bringing to life something that embodied our tagline ‘Home for your adventurous spirit’.
“The campaign brings to life exactly what that means, how it looks and feels to be out on those trails in such wide-open spaces, with a ski field next door, and yet still have five-star resort style village facilities there too.
“From the beginning we’ve aimed to give people access to the land which even before we owned it had been in private ownership for a very long time. The video is the epitome of the lifestyle we’re creating on the station.”
Says Scott Conway, director, Feast Creative: “The hero brand piece was born to embody Mt Cardrona’s Station’s core brand proposition ‘Home for your Adventurous Spirit’.
“Shying away from generic drone shots and library track music, the hero ad has been crafted on showing a ‘day in the life’ on the station and the abundance of adventures to be had, from sunrise to sunset, across every season.”
Three separate shoots over four days combined to produce the nearly two-minute long video, with Wānaka musician Danny Fairley of Mirror Audio providing a bespoke music track just for Mt Cardrona Station.
A stunning holiday home called Two Barns, nestled in the Cardrona Valley, brought to life by interior designer Vee Kessner and lighting director husband Mark, provided the perfect aesthetic for the warm and welcoming interior shoot.
Designed to be sympathetic to the area’s heritage — as are homes at Mt Cardrona Station — its protected spaces of light and warmth which are suited to the region’s diverse climate, readily lent themselves to the piece.
Local talent is peppered throughout the video, from two siblings of Olympic gold medallist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (Dylan and Illume Sadowski-Synnott) enjoying the house and everything it has to offer, to a Queenstown wine tour director on an invigorating walk.
A dinner table scene features wines from Wānaka family-owned company Maude Wines, and Cardrona Distillery’s single malt whisky is clearly the perfect after dinner tipple, an award-winning drop that’s spent five years in oak just down the valley.
Queenstown-based production agency Shotover Creative brought its well-recognised video production skills to the campaign, delivering all the ‘wish you were here’ feel goods to the stylish lifestyle piece.
Says Morton: “I love the energy Feast has brought to our proposition through the video; that this is a place for adventure, community and fun. The hero brand video brings this to life in a way that will excite and engage current and future owners and visitors to the station.
“What we offer at Mt Cardrona Station is much more than property and this comes across so well. It’s an adventurous lifestyle set within a spectacular alpine setting that you can access from your doorstep, complete with luxurious resort-style facilities.”
Many other local businesses, while not featuring in the campaign, are also the bedrock of the whole project. They include award-winning Queenstown company Baxter Design (for its visionary landscaping plans) and Wānaka’s CDL Building, the development’s preferred construction company.
Multi-award-winning Abodo Wood, which has a showcase Cardrona Cabin in the small township, features in the station’s flagship home design The Rose.
Client: Mt Cardrona Station
Digital Marketing Manager: Kate Morton
Creative Agency: Feast Creative
Managing Director: Scott Conway
Account Director: Hannah Henderson
Production Company: Shotover Creative
Music: Danny Fairley, Mirrors Audio
With special thanks to local suppliers: Two Barns Cardrona, The Cardrona Hotel, Maude Wine, The Cardrona Distillery
4 Comments
Looks like a lot of effort without a lot of thinking.
That’s such an innovative and emotive storyline on so many levels
Innovative?????? Grey Lynn boomers life style shots I actually care about Mt Cardrona. Why? Because someone once spoke to a bunch of us in a way that made me care. And I don’t ski. This is appallingly lazy. It should be rinsed through with insight. It should be right here. right now in 2023. Am I giving you a hard time? Yes. Because there is absolutely no feast in your creative. And, I’m so damned tired of jumped up content people awarding themselves the word creative. The very fact that you do so, shows you have not one single creative bone in your body. I don’t normally rant here, but that you were given the gift and the heartbreak of Cardrona, and you produced this? Name change. Right now.
I’m a central AK boomer with an educated eye that says, this looks good. With my own mates around that table, an appealing place. I wonder if it could be shot normal speed and just edited shorter. Good logo and branding work too. The commentator above, I think, needs a shit. (Strong coffee and two weetbix should do it mate.)