Client

The CRL is a 3.45km twin-tunnel underground rail link up to 42 metres below the Auckland city centre. The tunnels connect downtown at Britomart with a re-developed Maungawhau Station (Mt Eden) on the Western Line. Two new underground stations will open up central city access; Karanga a Hape (Karanghape) with entrances at Mercury Lane and Beresford Square and Te Wai Horotiu (Aotea) at Victoria and Wellesley Streets, midtown.

 

CRL will double the number of people within 30 minutes of central Auckland, which is the country’s biggest employment hub. When fully operational, 54,000 passengers an hour will use CRL stations at peak times. This is the rail equivalent of an additional 16 lanes of road or three Auckland Harbour Bridges. More than 2000 people are building CRL.

 

Project innovation and complexity is upskilling a workforce to benefit future generations. CRL is funded jointly by the Crown (NZ Government) and Auckland Council. City Rail Link is planned to be completed late 2024, but City Rail Link Ltd is currently assessing the impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the project’s construction timetable and its costs.  CRL Ltd will have more clarity around those two issues later this year.

 

Collaboration with mana whenua has created  distinctive designs for CRL stations and outside spaces reflecting the city’s unique cultural history and we have been honoured that our Mana Whenua Forum has gifted us station names.

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Requirements

To celebrate the partnership with Mana Whenua and generate advocacy, positive media coverage and enthusiasm around the CRL project and its commitment to Māori heritage and cultural narrative of Tamaki Makaurau, CRL came to The Hood & Co wanting to create a suite of videos to introduce the four Te Reo station names gifted to them by Mana Whenua (MWF). It was to be the focal point of a successful ‘hearts and minds’ campaign to bring the public and stakeholders along on the journey of the station renaming and interlinked latest designs.

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We quickly identified that the assets that were created for Tātaki Auckland Unlimited would be incredibly helpful to use to tell the station’s stories as well as support in getting Aucklanders o board with the new station names. We reached out and gained permission from the brand team to use the footage – in particular those of the Waitemata harbour, urban Tāmaki Makaurau and it’s beautiful natural surroundings.

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Solution

Over a period of 4 weeks, The Hood & Co worked together with the communications team and two representatives of the Mana Whenua Forum to produce four Station Naming videos and an Explainer Video that went deeper into CRL related activities.

 

t was important that we delivered the videos on time with a hard deadline that the videos were going to be released to the public and presented to the New Zealand geographic Board to start the name adoption process. We delivered the videos on the 4th May and attended the Station Naming ceremony on the 6th May (with many media, ministers and council members in attendance).