Completing the Census means that communities can receive resources based on the level of need - anything from local healthcare, to street lights.

Many New Zealanders do not realise the importance of this National survey, and combined with the mistrust of government among Māori, 2023 was set to be the worst year on record for Māori turn out. This is despite prioritisation of this group and $1 million NZD spent on incentives for priority groups.

At the eleventh hour Stats NZ approached the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to help lift census responses among Māori before June 30. With less than five weeks remaining, the daunting challenge was to achieve 10,000 completed census forms.

We needed to personally empower Māori to engage with the census, for the benefit of their communities - an on-the-ground team to strengthen engagement in a way that the Government couldn’t; with trust and understanding.

The census is essentially a way to represent your suburb - to ensure it is allocated the resources it needs. So we encouraged people to represent their suburb through a super limited-edition range of items branded with different Auckland area codes, that could be obtained only by filling out the census.

We were able to connect the idea of representing your suburb through an area code (something people already do in music, street art, and clothing), with the idea of representing your suburb by filling out the census. This was a way to directly show how standing up and being counted ultimately benefits your neighbourhood and community.

There was a limited number available per suburb, to drive urgency and hype.

Taking an approach that centered on Māori world view, ‘Rep Your Suburb’ channelled identity and forged community connection, bringing local pride right into the heart of our under-represented suburbs.

Younger Māori growing up in urban centres often feel a disconnection from their ancestral heritage, despite experiencing a strong pull towards their cultural identity.

Our strategic focus was to forge connection through shared identity, place and mana (spirit).

The Government and Stats NZ had tried to engage with Māori using a traditional lens focusing on a sense of Whakakapa and connection to iwi (tribe). But, given that our target audience, young urban Māori, experience a lack of connection to their ‘traditional’ Māori identity due to urban migration and displacement, this strategy hadn’t connected with them.

Our strategy was to connect with local neighbourhoods, in a hyper-local, culturally relevant way, by using merchandise they love, at the places they belong and with people they trust. By using their area codes as symbols of pride, we embraced this modern means of identification and strengthened their sense of community and belonging.

With just five weeks from brief to campaign end, and a fraction of the ‘mainstream’ campaign budget, we achieved what may seem impossible. By creating a bespoke mobile pop-up store, decked out with exclusive merch for each suburb’s area code — none of which were available, or for sale anywhere else, we imbued our audience with a sense of pride in their local identity. Our call to action “Rep Your Suburb” invited people to stand up and be counted for the benefit of their area, and perhaps receive a piece of bespoke merch in return.

The activation leveraged the cultural hype around streetwear, collectible items and exclusive drops. The pop-up store roamed suburbs providing census assistance — taking it directly to the people. The limited edition streetwear was advertised through teaser comms and an interactive online map, telling people to look out for our Whānau Ora activation in their suburb.

The work went live after the mainstream campaign ended and forms were 'officially' meant to have been completed. Meaning our audience was inherently harder to shift.

Despite only giving out 250 pieces of merchandise, Whānau Ora achieved 41,267 completed Māori census forms surpassing its target by an incredible 413%.

As of August 2023, the Government had spent $286 Million on the 2023 Census. This includes everything; from questionnaire design, to fieldwork, staff, incentives and comms, to achieve 4.5 Million completed census forms. Resulting in an average cost of $63.55 per completed form.

The Whānau Ora initiative spend of $328,728 covered all staffing on the ground, merchandise, truck, and all other campaign costs. As a result, 41,267 Māori census forms were completed, an average of $8.43 per form.