New Zealand’s population is becoming more diverse, as migrants from across the globe make their home here. It’s an opportunity for advertisers and marketers, but how do they communicate with the evolving peoplescape of Aotearoa?
The cultural makeup of New Zealand is diverse. While our nation’s founding agreement is between Māori and Pākehā, Aotearoa has abundant pockets of other cultures.
From Pasifika, to Asian to European, New Zealand is a real mix of ethnicities. Yet our media and advertising landscape doesn’t always reflect the many faces of our land.
It’s a missed opportunity. In an especially difficult economy, it is more important than ever for brands and companies to reach as much of the population as they can, and the best way to do so is by connecting with all cultures who live here.
The new mainstream audience
In 2018, Census figures showed Chinese New Zealanders numbered over 250,000, or 4.9% of the population. While early data from the 2023 Census doesn’t indicate ethnicity at this level, it shows our Asian community now stands at 861,576 people – that’s 17.3% of our country’s inhabitants.
Ken Freer, Head of Flying Tiger, the Chinese marketing arm at Thompson Spencer, says this group is “too valuable to ignore”.
They are considered untapped potential, and with the proportion expected to reach 20 or 30% by 2030, many brands are missing out on millions of domestic customers – some distracted by those who are considering leaving the country.
Stu Rutherford, Director at Asian marketing specialist The Agency 88, says although many in this demographic might be unaware of local marketing efforts, they will eventually become more plugged into the mainstream. He warns, down the line, Kiwi brands that fail to engage this community now will lose to bigger, global brands that are making the effort to meet the Chinese on their ‘turf’.
“What remains a relatively small population is quickly diversifying,” says Rutherford.
“Our perception of mainstream audiences is now shifting – to a point that businesses will have to grow revenue through diversity. Businesses that are growing recognise this.”
Rather than thinking about it as a marketing strategy for the next year, communicating to a wider range of ethnicities should be looked at as futureproofing your business, he says.
“Because the nature of the populace is shifting, there’s the opportunity for every brand to think about that at a commercial level and ask, ‘How am I going to test the opportunity to find revenues for growth there?’” Rutherford says.
Translating isn’t enough
Reaching a Chinese audience isn’t as simple as putting an existing campaign through Google Translate. You have to understand where the community likes to hang out.
“It’s a particularly challenging audience to reach and engage with via Western marketing channels,” says Flying Tiger’s Freer.
Many Chinese people are not frequent users of social media platforms such as Instagram, and are instead found in places they are most familiar with, for example WeChat and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). Though they may be aware of what many marketers consider “normal channels”, they’re likely to stick with the ones they know.
“Because of this, many brands choose to ignore this important group of potential customers,” adds Freer.
The audience is too big to ignore, but hard to reach using the usual channels, so what’s the best way forward?
The first step is considering and engaging in a strategy that acknowledges the Chinese audience. When settling in to Aotearoa, Chinese immigrants will often be drawn to global brands they are already familiar with. When choosing a bank or insurance, for example, new residents will take advice from the diaspora – listening to word of mouth and choosing where to put their money accordingly.
“The key thing for most brands is to recognise the audience. Not so much your target audience, but the people who walk in the door,” says Rutherford.
Big local retailers, like supermarket chains Pak’nSave or telco One New Zealand, can start from the ground up.
Pak’nSave is one of The Agency 88’s clients, and Rutherford believes it is the “perfect proposition” for a broad ethnic audience. Chinese consumers love premium brands, but when it comes to food, good quality and low prices are a winning combination, he says.
So next comes the job of communicating this proposition to the Chinese community. Enter Stickman on WeChat.
Pak’nSave has transferred the hugely successful marketing strategy to where the target community is already. On WeChat, Stickman speaks Chinese to communicate deals of the week, making sure to highlight products this audience is most likely to purchase.
“The key element is having a very clear focus on what your opportunity is in the Chinese-speaking market, then developing a platform and content strategy that gives the best access and engagement to the market in a way that delivers measurable and sustainable results,” says Freer.
Having a presence on the same platforms and channels as your customers is a good start. Next is understanding what’s important in that community’s culture.
Big holidays like Chinese New Year are already celebrated by local brands, but many customers see businesses
ticking a box and showing up once a year. In fact, media consumption by Chinese drops dramatically during this period, as a significant chunk of the community heads back to China to celebrate.
To avoid looking like a brand that only turns up for the annual party, businesses should build a calendar of key dates, such as Dragon Boat Festival, Mooncake Festival and Children’s Day.
By understanding where the Chinese community is and creating bespoke information for them, brands can expect high value over time.
“The decision-making journey for a new migrant can be lengthy, simply because they don’t have that brand awareness, knowledge, trust, credits – all of that sort of stuff. So building your credentials over time and maintaining it is super important,” says Rutherford.
In touch with our roots
As a country with strong indigenous roots, it is vital that the New Zealand media and advertising landscape communicates with Māori.
“We are a bicultural nation. That’s our makeup and that’s what we should be celebrating.”
So says Arnya Karaitiana (Rangitāne, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Arawa), Kaiārahi of Special Aotea, when asked what it’s like to bring te ao Māori into creative work for briefs and clients.
“It’s always been about inclusion and speaking to everyone at the same time,” she says.
Special Aotea is a subgroup of locally owned creative agency Special that champions te ao Māori within its creative, strategy and business.
Special Aotea is bringing together Māori creatives to ensure their cultural experiences and perspectives are brought to the table – because Aotearoa is a bicultural nation that needs to have indigenous kaupapa seen and heard.
“Our purpose is to make a positive difference to our people and our place, our clients and our next generation by drawing knowledge and inspiration from our te ao Māori worldview,” says Karaitiana.
The subgroup follows three pou (pillars):
- Special Whānau, building cultural capabilities internally through the people and the place.
- Special Tāngata, building ama (connection), auaha (creative expression) and atawhai (consideration and care) for clients as they navigate te ao Māori.
- Special Rangatahi, where a percentage of the annual profit from Special Aotea is given to a pathways programme that supports young Māori entering
the industry.
Karaitiana says te ao Māori is heavily engraved in the history of New Zealand and so it’s important for that to be reflected in the creative work produced for clients.
“It’s important to acknowledge and continue to be curious about te ao Māori, and support and celebrate it – because if it doesn’t exist anywhere else, then why is it there?” she says.
And the best way to support and celebrate is with work by Māori – you can’t beat lived experience.
“With Special Aotea, it was really about establishing something within a creative environment that supports and gives time to really search for and be curious. This gives an opportunity to Māori to voice their stories that we can creatively build on,” she says.
“For me, it’s really important to break down the silos we all live in and work in to allow te ao Māori to be discussed and to ever help each other strengthen our understanding of it.”
For Special, it’s not about reaching one specific cultural group, but rather considering the space of everyone in New Zealand. As a multicultural country, brands will benefit more when they speak to everyone instead of just one cultural group.
And over the years, there has been a real desire for not just clients of Special, but for local and global brands to understand New Zealand on a deeper level, so everyone feels connected to their work, says Karaitiana.
“I think for many of us as New Zealanders, te ao Māori is still a really foreign concept. I think more education and understanding would help lift the fear and the feelings of the unknown, to encourage us to embrace it more. I think that includes the fear of being wrong or fear of being culturally inappropriate,” she says.
Through understanding and engaging with the Māori community, one can understand about the land and the people. The best way to engage and meet ethnic audiences is by providing opportunities for all voices, experiences and values to be heard.
By having a part of its business dedicated to doing exactly that, Special as an entire group can understand clients better – from strategy to design to communications.
“Te ao Māori consideration on a strategic level can help in understanding. It can help us to understand the meaning behind a specific brand’s values and therefore inform particular brand behaviours,” says Karaitiana.
“Really getting into and actually infusing te ao Māori perspectives throughout the process gives us a really good outcome.”
Special Aotea worked closely with clients on campaigns for Tourism New Zealand, Education New Zealand and the recent rebrand of Kiwibank – helping them gain a deeper understanding of their value in this country.
Communicating to the masses
It’s not just brands that want to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups. One media platform that puts heavy focus on communicating with the diverse ethnic audiences of New Zealand is Stuff.co.nz.
The digital media company is dedicated to delivering content for the underserved communities – specifically Māori – through its Pou Tiaki kaupapa.
Pou Tiaki was developed to ensure fair representation in Stuff’s work through embedding te ao Māori across the company, says Laura Maxwell, Stuff Group Chief Executive.
“We have a dedicated Pou Tiaki editorial team telling the stories of underserved communities, a fantastic kaiwhakamāori (translator) helping us scale the number of articles we publish in te reo Māori and a Pou Tiaki integration lead to develop and deliver data-driven, creative campaigns focussed on Māori audiences and businesses,” she says.
“Importantly, the Pou Tiaki principle is embedded in our company charter and all our people are expected to apply it to their mahi to safeguard from discrimination and inequity.”
The Pou Tiaki kaupapa is embedded in Stuff’s company culture, but there’s always room for more innovation.
Stuff’s recent partnership with Microsoft and AI tech service Straker means more articles can be published in
te reo Māori, which Maxwell says supports the language’s revitalisation.
As well as promoting te reo, Stuff knows it’s good for the bottom line to serve the 79% of its audience who identify as having a non-Pākehā background.
“Understanding your audience is vital for any media organisation. I’m proud of our commitment at Stuff to foster diversity and inclusion because this is not just an ethical choice, it’s a business decision,” says Maxwell.
This commitment can be seen at a people level as well as through company policy – the newsroom staff reflect many cultures, so they understand how to reach, help and communicate with a wide variety of communities.
“These stories matter to the whole of New Zealand, not just the communities we’re writing about, and can be powerful catalysts for increasing representation.
“Seeing and hearing stories like this can encourage others to share their stories too, and raises awareness about the issues affecting different communities so that more heads can get together and work on solutions,” she says.
Having a diverse newsroom isn’t the end point for Stuff. It also has Harakeke, an integration unit that looks at creative and strategic storytelling to reflect and reach diverse audiences for their commercial partners.
Named after the te reo word for flax, Harakeke looks to weave multiple strands for creative expression.
“Ko te Harakeke o Puna, our Harakeke at Stuff, weaves together creative and commercial aspirations, delivering brilliant story-led content and campaigns for audiences through our collective strength right across our ecosystem of products,” explains Maxwell.
“Our large audience is very diverse, with scale and reach right around Aotearoa. We understand our audience better than anyone and having an integration unit in-house means we can use that knowledge to help our partners tell their story in a way that resonates with and reaches people and communities across the motu.”
There’s no doubt Aotearoa looks very different from how it did 30 years ago, and the coming decades will see even more change. The message from experts is clear: diversity is fast becoming the new mainstream, and the path to success lies in making the effort to communicate in a way that will be heard.
This was first published in the 2024 June-July NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
