🎬 My Story
I’m not from hospo or hotel management 🙂
Instead I’ve been paid to drive 250kph, direct global sport stars, visit Transylvania…
Just not all at the same time though, what a day that would be!
I spent 15 years in the world’s top advertising agencies.
I’m best known in NZ for…
💡 Creating over 200 marketing campaigns for Air New Zealand
💺 Including naming and launching Grabaseat.
💥 Being the first to break $1M per day in direct bookings for Air NZ.
I spent 7 years in London, highlights included:
✨ Launching the Range Rover Evoque.
🎬 Shooting ads with Ridley Scott’s film crew in Barcelona.
✈️ Working on the Olympic 2012 campaign for British Airways.
🌏 Photographing for Travel Mags on my weekends.
💍 Getting married in Tuscany (I love wine and sunshine).
My wife and I returned to NZ to start a family and I joined Saatchi & Saatchi 🕺
I did some really fun stuff with the All Blacks, Olympians, Celebrity Chefs…
I jumped around agencies following the fun projects.
But the loooong hours were not exactly family friendly
(I’m talking 7 weekends in a row, long hours).
I switched industry to Management Consulting with PwC.
Better work/life balance, chunky govt projects, learning heaps…
Then Covid struck 😷
Everything got hectic, I’m sure your life did too?
Tourism New Zealand came knocking…
They had 150 tourism businesses.
These guys were freaking out.
They needed a plan to rapidly change their customer offerings.
And rethink their Digital Marketing ASAP.
Every day I was helping Owners and GMs.
Giving them Quick Wins for momentum.
And also Next Steps to focus on…
I loved it 👍
Combining my knowledge of Marketing with Business Consulting
And applying that to Tourism was hugely rewarding 🏆.
✅ We got amazing results and it felt great.
When that 9 month contract finished I left PwC to
begin Occupancy Accelerator.
👉 Now I help Boutique Hotels get more Direct Bookings.
It’s the best job I’ve ever had!
I look forward to hearing your story 😀
Damien “storyteller” Knowles