Pasifika Festival 2010

Pacific health career recruitment in overdrive

The Le Va team prepared for months for the Auckland Pasifika festival on 13 March, one of the largest Polynesian festivals of its kind in the world. The Ministry of Health offered Le Va a place in their marquee to promote and distribute our collateral. The location was just outside the Samoan village and right near one of the main entry gates. We were in a prime location that was also a popular thoroughfare for the many thousands who came through the gates. Le Va made the most of this vantage point.

The team got to the marquee early on Saturday morning to set up. As part of our marketing and recruitment strategy, we had ice cold Le Va branded water bottles, stick-on Le Va branded tattoos, 'Tha Hook' cards, Le Va branded cardboard sun visors and other cool free giveaways to attract young people and families to our stall. All items had our key information and website details on them, including the stick-on tattoos. Even the police on duty were attracted to our marquee, especially for the free water, some even asked for stick-on tattoos to put on their arms which was great because they became walking bill-boards for us while they patrolled the grounds!

We also played and looped our multi-media presentations with Pacific stars and high-profile personalities promoting our work, playing on a large flat-screen TV with music in the background. Our colourful beanbags near the front of the marquee were a hit with the tired and weary, especially the many children stopping for a rest in the shade. It was a true family event and a wonderful day out.

To further enhance our presence, over 30 students from Marist College and De La Salle College were given black Le Va branded t-shirts to wear while they handed out Le Va collateral near our marquee. Their energy, bustle and enthusiasm attracted at least three different television film crews to see what they were promoting! They then went out in smaller groups to the many acres of festival grounds to distribute our collateral and direct people to our marquee. Rather than being static in one place waiting for people, this strategy ensured we had the widest possible reach to the largest number of people. Almost every item, of the many thousands we took on the day, were distributed.

Many hundreds of people poured through the marquee, attracted by our free giveaways and music. While they were there, Andy Feao (Youth Advisor) signed and registered many of them up for our Le Va Bebo and Facebook sites. We had well over 550 young people sign up to our Bebo or Facebook page on the day. We are still receiving registration requests many days after the event as a direct result of our approach. If we had more than the four laptops we had open and online on the day to ease the queue, this number would easily have reached well over 1,000.

The Le Va team are now gearing up for a number of other Pacific events coming up including the School Polyfest, Enua Ola Festival and Spacifically Pacific Festival in Christchurch.

Check out photos from the day!

Page last updated: 18 March 2010