Too many Aussie businesses think they can replicate their local marketing efforts to New Zealand with little adjustment – but this strategy often ends in wasted budgets and ineffectual campaigns. In this op-ed Richard Thompson, partner and co-founder of NZ-based D3, highlights where many of these companies are going wrong.
If you’re an Aussie business looking to expand overseas – say the US or UK – you do your research. You look into the differences in channels, audience demographics, measurement, and all the various other quirks that make one market different from another.
But when it comes to New Zealand, it seems too few are affording us the same due diligence, and it’s having a huge impact.
If I were to hazard a guess why, I would say there’s probably a misconception that the two countries aren’t really that different in terms of both marketing and culture. Besides, New Zealand is much smaller than Australia – so is it even worth the hours to give it that deeper attention?
In a word, yes. Anything else is just bad marketing.
You may be thinking this is not really a serious problem, to which I would say I recently had to tell an Aussie agency that the New Zealand Herald is an upper North Island-centric publication, not a national newspaper like they thought. That was bad news for the ad spot the agency had bought with the intention of reaching a national audience.
It would’ve taken just a few minutes of Googling to work this out, but even this basic level of research is being skipped. It’s directly translating to a waste of money for these Australian businesses with footholds in New Zealand.
These differences are leading a lot of businesses to take the easy road and pump money into the giant digital channels to reach NZ audiences, but this doesn’t work the same way in NZ as it does in other markets and is having a huge impact on local media owners as well. It all adds up to budgets being wasted through ineffective or lazy strategies, and in the current economic environment, I don’t think anyone can afford to waste money where they can avoid it.
The nuances between the Australian and New Zealand markets are significant, and ignoring them can lead to ineffective campaigns and wasted budgets. A half-hearted approach simply won’t cut it.
Let’s consider sheer scale as a start. New Zealand is a much smaller market, so you can’t replicate the same TV or video-on-demand (VOD) buy you would do in Australia and expect it to have the same impact.
For example, in Australia, the 18-39 year old demographic is well served by VOD products across platforms such as Binge, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Stan. But in New Zealand, we only have about two of those platforms (and are lucky enough to not have ads on Netflix yet as well).
So if you wanted to talk to someone in that age group, it wouldn’t really be effective to do that through VOD or TV. This demographic can still be found on the social media platforms you would expect them to be, like Instagram and TikTok, but given the saturation of these channels, you may well struggle to cut through.
Instead, it’s worth considering radio or out-of-home (OOH). Radio is a thriving market in New Zealand, with far more people listening to radio per capita than they do in Australia. Stations such as George FM or Mai FM have clear audience segments that are younger, and completely engaged on those platforms.
For OOH, younger audiences are extremely present on buses and trains. Street furniture particularly performs well with this demographic and poses a much more interesting way to really make an impact, versus fighting for attention among the hundreds of other brands they’re seeing when they log onto their favourite social media platforms.
But it’s worth noting that in New Zealand, programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) is strongly emerging as the way in which these campaigns are bought. Aussie businesses, as far as I can tell, still tend to buy OOH as part of larger deals. If you’re looking to break into the OOH market in New Zealand, it may be worth looking into your pDOOH capabilities.
And then there’s traditional media. Unfortunately, in New Zealand, our newspapers and broadcast media are in something of a state of flux. Most recently was the closure of Newshub, which was deeply felt by everyone.
However, by no means is traditional media dead in the water. In fact, I would say it poses a really interesting opportunity for Australian businesses. The audiences of news platforms are in an environment where they’re actively absorbing information. It is also an essential platform to use to build an omnichannel presence.
In my experience, working with New Zealand media often means collaborating on a deeper level that goes beyond just buying an ad. It’s encouraged to work more closely with the editorial teams to build out a long-term strategy and partnership between the two parties.
A lot of this can be summed up by the fact that New Zealand has a small population, and media owners are in trouble because there are only so many advertisers. We’ve been forced to think laterally with a lot of clients who aren’t seeing the results they usually do from the channels they used to rely on, such as search and Meta, due to rising costs.
This tough situation has forced us to think innovatively and more out of the box in order to get the right results.
That’s the kind of mentality I now hope to see from Aussie businesses that are investing in New Zealand. It’s not just a box to tick for your media spend. It’s an opportunity to think more creatively, experiment, and play into the unique characteristics of this market.
Investing time and resources into understanding these nuances can mean the difference between a successful campaign and a costly misfire.
Ultimately, treating New Zealand with the same care and attention as any other international market is not just smart – it’s essential for success. So, embrace the differences, think outside the box, and for everyone’s sake, please do your homework.
