🎬 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