| Winner | Auckland Transport |
| Marketing initiative | Mix Your Go |
| Marketing partners | FEDERATION, Creative@AT, MBM, Dark Horse |
| Finalists | No other finalists |
| Judges’ comments | “Talk about a complex category and a raft of challenging stakeholders. In the middle of a public transport rebuild, this campaign smartly reset the way AT communicates to the market. The campaign embraced all modes of transport in Auckland, helping achieve public transport growth and a decline in car usage, despite the service disruptions along the way. This is one part of a multi-year journey – keep going!”s.” |
Aucklanders get on board with AT
Facing a drop in public transport use and a rise in traffic congestion, Auckland Transport needed to convince car-obsessed city-dwellers to try other ways to get around.
The way Aucklanders live, work and travel has changed significantly since the Covid era. By March 2024, 27% of Aucklanders had formed new working from home habits, affecting public transport numbers and local area congestion.
After the pandemic, Aucklanders’ car usage shot up significantly. More residents began using cars for short trips,
putting extra pressure on the city’s roads.
In response, AT set itself ambitious targets – including increasing the number of annual public transport trips in Auckland by five million and growing cycle network numbers by 5%.
Changes that work
AT, the country’s biggest public transport operator, needed to think and act like a challenger brand, disrupting the status quo for Aucklanders with alternative solutions that prioritised their needs.
It analysed its network and found up to 750,000 Aucklanders lived within 500m of a bus service that goes at least every 15 minutes, between 7am and 7pm.
These residents were a key audience for AT’s Mix Your Go campaign, which took an overtly car ‘agnostic’ approach, respecting the insight that Aucklanders love their cars.
Instead of telling them to stop using cars, AT included cars in the wider range of travel modes it was highlighting.
Who won, who they were up against and what the judges had to say.
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Feel the difference
Mix Your Go smashed the global averages when it comes to cut-through: outdoor saw 53% (19% is the global average) while social and digital achieved 51% (compared to 16% globally).
This helped drive a major shift in how Aucklanders get around. By September 2024, public transport trips in Auckland increased by 22% to 87 million trips, up from 71 million trips from the year prior.
AT also recorded 3.4 million cycle movements in the 12 months to 1 Feb 2025, up 8% on the previous year.
As public transport and walking picked up momentum, social car trips declined by 12% and leisure car trips by 9%, while overall satisfaction with the experience of driving around Auckland was also up 10 points to March 2025, to 57%.
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 84, Sept-Nov 2025. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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