They do things differently in the country… sort of. We speak to the experts about how to market to Kiwis in rural and regional areas, and the best media options for reaching them.
If you just look at the raw numbers, it would seem the country that gave the world the electric fence and Fred Dagg isn’t rural at all.
New Zealand is one of the most urbanised nations in the world: our three biggest cites (Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch) account for half our population of 5.2 million people, while only one in seven New Zealanders (14%) live rurally. Just 2-3% are farmers or their families.
That’s why, with a few notable exceptions (such as Country Calendar and ad breaks during the rugby), our mainstream media doesn’t have a huge rural focus. But our rural sector is crucial to the economy. New Zealand’s food and fibre sector export earnings hit a record $56 billion in 2023, projected to reach $62 billion by 2027.
When combined with regional towns that service the primary industry and support other key sectors such as tourism, the rural audience is crucial for many advertisers. David Ramirez, Marketing Strategist at Plato Creative, says this group’s distinct characteristics set them apart from their urban counterparts, making it essential for advertisers to tailor their messaging to engage and connect effectively.
“Rural New Zealanders often lead self-sufficient, practical lifestyles. So, advertisers should emphasise practical benefits and clearly communicate how their products or services can enhance daily life, whether by improving agricultural efficiency or offering cost-effective solutions for everyday needs,” he says.
This audience also values trust highly due to their close-knit communities, so building long-term relationships is more effective than executing one-off campaigns, says Ramirez. “Through authentic storytelling, being transparent about product benefits, and consistently engaging with the community, advertisers can establish and maintain trust with this audience.”
Ramirez says improved internet access and mobile connectivity to rural areas has seen a significant increase in digital engagement. More rural New Zealanders are now using social media and online news sites. “Despite this digital uptick, traditional media remains influential. According to the 2022 Nielsen Rural Survey, nearly 70% of rural residents still read at least one rural newspaper each month, and 80% tune into the radio weekly.”
Avid readers
Kate Boreham, Stuff Head of Regional and Rural Markets, says these Kiwis make up an important part of Stuff’s audience. “Stuff gets rural and regional New Zealand. We have the largest regional news network in the country, reaching 79% of those living rurally or regionally,” she says.
“With this comes deep and long-standing connections to communities across the motu. Each month, we get to the heart of what’s happening in the agricultural sector in NZ Farmer, the country’s largest rural publication.
We help brands get their story in the mailboxes of farmers and in front of the people who drive primary industries.”
Boreham says some of Stuff’s channels have particularly strong rural audiences, with those living in rural and regional areas 17% more likely to visit social platform Neighbourly compared to its audience as a whole. “More than half (53%) of readers of Stuff’s six regional newspapers (Manawatū Standard, Taranaki Daily News, The Marlborough Express, The Nelson Mail, The Timaru Herald, The Southland Times) live rurally.”
Boreham says Stuff is also in the process of creating a more cohesive network of community and regional mastheads, tightly aligned to their communities’ needs.
“The latest step in this process was Stuff’s acquisition in May of the Wairarapa Times-Age masthead. This will strengthen our leading position in the lower North Island and unlock more great opportunities for our commercial partners.”
Social etiquette
Better connectivity has created more opportunities for advertisers to reach rural Kiwis on social platforms.
Spencer Bailey, Head of Meta New Zealand, says: “When looking to expand your business to rural and regional communities, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach and it will always depend on the business and the people within specific communities they are trying to reach.”
However, Bailey does recommend a few ways to connect. “First do your research into the regional community you are trying to target and see if there are any cultural moments that align with your business that you can tap into. It could include posting a Reel tapping into this cultural moment, or a poll, questionnaire, or even sparking a conversation with some organic content on your Facebook page or Instagram profile.”
Another way to tap into regional communities could be engaging local creators that resonate with them, Bailey says. “This is a great way to tap into a local culture – leveraging someone who understands the local nuances who has a trusted relationship with this audience, and can act as a bridge between them and your business.”
In addition to these strategies, Meta’s Ads Manager offers targeting tools that allow you to campaign at specific locations, he says.
“This approach will enable you to reach your desired audience with precision and accuracy. By using these options, businesses can effectively reach and engage with rural and regional New Zealanders, ultimately expanding their customer base and growing their brand.”
Loving the letterbox
Despite the rise of social, advertisers looking to get the attention of those in rural and regional areas shouldn’t underestimate the continued power of the letterbox drop. Clara Ng, Client Solutions Lead – Data at Reach Marketing Agency, says research shows that rural communities and those in the agri sector actively engage with both traditional and digital media.
“They still rely on traditional channels like letterbox as a key source of connection, and some of our most successful campaigns have driven huge sales for rural products and services within these communities. The fact that we can overlay a digital marketing layer targeting those same households or audience segments receiving the traditional letterbox component is also really powerful. Farmers and rural locals are also very much online, engaging with groups and brands via social media.”
Ng says Reach always focuses on using multiple channels to target and engage with the right audience. “Audience segments differ across New Zealand, and Reach offers unique insight into where those optimal audiences are for brands within a regional or rural market – which often looks different to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We have the ability to speak directly to those New Zealanders with relevance and multiple touch points to drive brand awareness and messaging.”
Ng says over the past few years Reach has seen many advertisers finding it hard to stand out in cluttered digital marketplaces. “This is where the power of the letterbox is really strong in the regional and rural sector,” she says. “We had one rural campaign in particular where the business owner called us saying, ‘My phone will not stop ringing’ – best sales period he’d had in years. So yes, this is a sector in particular that benefits from letterbox.”
Doing it tough
While the rural sector is crucial to the New Zealand economy, it has been going through tough times. Nicola Harrop, Chief Marketing Officer for Kiwi agritech business Gallagher Animal Management, says for any brand, it is first and foremost important to understand the challenges your customers face, and what problems you can solve for them.
“This is especially true in the rural sector. Farmers are increasingly under growing pressure as economic and climate factors impact their day-to-day operations, so we feel it’s crucial that we are constantly looking for new ways to make life easier for them. That is true not just of our solutions offering but also our marketing,” she says.
“It is about making that decision making process easier, streamlining their route to purchase and removing any hassle. Our farmers are notoriously short on time, so it’s essential we take a solutions-first approach: no frills, no fuss!”
Harrop says Gallagher likes to take an omnichannel approach to its marketing efforts, ensuring that customers experience its brand consistently, “whether that is online via our active social channels, at Field Days, or through our dedicated retail partners”. While Gallagher’s digital presence has grown in recent years, she says it recognises the importance of a local, grassroots approach with its New Zealand audience.
“We recently conducted some customer insights work and an overwhelming number of respondents spoke of their strong retailer relationships – which was great to hear, as we place a lot of focus on working closely with our distribution partners to create the best in-store experience for Gallagher customers.”
Community crucial
Heather Claycomb, founder of Hamilton-based communications agency HMC, says the way her clients reach rural audiences has changed significantly in the 20 years she’s been in business, although radio and community newspapers can still be effective. She says one big way rural audiences differ from urbanites is that they really prioritise community.
“They’re volunteering at school, they’re going to church, they’re doing all these different things. And if you’re going to serve that community or want to be influencing that community, you need to be part of that. You might do some sponsorship, but it’s not just writing a cheque. It’s being seen at the school, manning the barbecue for the fundraiser.”
Another aspect to watch out for when dealing with farmers is their “bullshit meter”, Claycomb warns. “Don’t bring in your corporate speak because they’re able to spot that right away.” She says farmers trust other farmers, and word of mouth “travels like wildfire” in those rural communities.
“You can use that to your advantage – or watch out if you’ve done something wrong; it’ll kill you, it’ll burn you.
That’s what I might call second-party endorsement. When farmers want to talk to farmers, they’re going to ask, ‘What is this? What’s the product like?’ That sort of thing.”
Rural communities may be different, but Richard Aitken, Marketing Manager for rural insurer FMG, says sometimes it’s not about doing things differently but about asking the basic questions. “Are we helping farmers be better farmers, helping them to improve and thrive? As a mutual insurer, we keep highlighting our heritage, sharing our knowledge and fight to keep relationships strong, all that has not changed,” he says.
“How we do each of those things is changing, like sharing more targeted data and insights to clients and enhancing relationships through easy-to-use tools.
“Our clients want more than a transactional relationship with us because it holds us to account. Clients like tech for productivity and react well if we help them in that way.”
Besides a broad television audience, rural has some strong and very helpful media partners who are “bigger than the numbers”, Aitken says. “Print still has a place, radio is strong and using partnerships to carry influence and messages is key. Supporting value-based programmes and organisations like Farmstrong and Melanoma NZ
fill a rural need, and are influential channels because they illustrate the strong partnership you need to provide with rural communities.”
Baby steps with AI
One trend that has taken the marketing world (and much of the world in general) by storm over the past couple of years is AI. However, there are some challenges in terms of using it for producing rural content, according to Hot Mustard Managing Director Paul Bell. He says AI tools can come up with inaccurate information, while AI image generators are also not ideal for creating context-specific rural images.
“We’re dealing with companies where whatever we write has got to be sourced. And so if you start using tools like AI and it’s not sourced, you can get into an awful lot of trouble, or you get into copyright issues.”
Bell says Hot Mustard has been using AI at the back end to improve efficiency and make administration easier. “But the traditional stuff that AI is being used for in media and advertising, because our needs are so specific for the audience, it doesn’t exist yet.”
This was first published in the 2024 June-July NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.