The art and science of weaving cultural communications

Understanding audiences and their cultural worldviews is crucial for crafting effective campaigns and communications that resonate with ethnic-specific audiences. Spearheading the art of weaving and unlocking cultural insights is Aotearoa-Pacific agency Bright Sunday.


When Bright Sunday delivered health campaigns to Pacific communities during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it showed the importance of creating ethnic-specific and culturally nuanced messages to achieve behaviour change.

“Instead of taking the clinical English message and translating it as is, we workshopped the message with our village of Pacific creatives and cultural experts and asked them to express it in a way that made sense for their respective communities,” says Bright Sunday’s Founder and Chief of Strategy, Galumalemana Stella Muller.

The result was a successful health campaign delivered to nine ethnic-specific Pacific communities that worked quickly to build trust and confidence. 

Muller emphasises that when marketing to ethnic-specific audiences, culturally nuanced creative messaging should be the standard.

“Taking the message and thinking: what is the Māori way, what is the Samoan way, what is the Tongan way of saying this? There’s more to it than just translating an English message into each language,” she says. 

“There are always more interesting and relatable ways to communicate messages – often inspired by indigenous and Pacific worldviews, stories and constructs.”

When Muller started her communications career 22 years ago in the public sector, she says it was rare to see ethnic-specific campaigns and communications. 

“Back then it was grassroots Māori and Pacific organisations pushing ethnic-specific communications because they understood the value of this approach – and they proved that it worked,” she says. 

Since setting up Bright Sunday in 2010, she has seen the landscape of her industry change and client needs evolve out of a desire to achieve equitable outcomes for Māori and Pacific people.

“There’s now a real appreciation for the work that agencies like ours bring to the table. We’re heavily invested in getting it right for our communities and that’s why we work differently,” says Muller.

“Our practice of raranga-lalaga is the art and science of weaving together audience perspectives and worldviews to form the patterns or insights for strong strategy and engaging creative communications,” Muller says. “That’s our craft.”

A recent example of Bright Sunday’s work is the Pacific cervical screening campaign promoting screening choices and the new HPV self-test option. 

The lalaga conversations they had with Pacific women and screening providers resulted in the creation of resources and a digital campaign that offered a “beautiful” way to talk about a taboo topic from a Pacific cultural perspective.

“We heard from women that they weren’t scared to talk about cervical screening, but they did need communications to be framed in a culturally appropriate way that acknowledged the mana and sacredness of Pacific women. This insight opened up a creative way to express the message successfully to engage Pacific women,” Muller says.

Another important aspect of this approach is journeying with clients to build their confidence and understanding of ethnic-specific and cultural approaches.

“We often work with non-Māori and non-Pacific people who have a real passion to make a difference for our communities, but sometimes worry they might get it wrong. 

“Our role goes beyond creating and launching an exceptional campaign. We are committed to collaborating with clients and stakeholders to ensure the job is done the ‘right way’, offering cultural guidance and encouragement throughout the process. We genuinely feel a deep responsibility to support (awhi) them every step of the journey.”

She also challenges clients to factor in appropriate resources and timelines for the planning and engagement process. 

“These are the communities we all come from, so we have a responsibility to reciprocate and keep them informed – when the client invests in that relational way of doing the work, they’re going to get better outcomes,” Muller says. 

“We have to do things differently and push the boundaries because the work we do in advertising and marketing significantly influences people’s choices and life decisions. Especially with health campaigns, lives quite literally depend on us disrupting the status quo.”

With the explosion of independent agencies and the growing presence of Māori and Pacific agencies in the Aotearoa Pacific region, Muller agrees the best is yet to come.

“We’re only scratching at the surface of what can be achieved,” she says, “and I believe our industry can lead the way to show the world how we roll to unlock cultural worldviews and truths for impactful and life-changing campaigns.

“Let’s weave!” 

[email protected] . brightsunday.co.nz


This was first published in our June/July 2024 issue

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