A single insight changed everything: 70% of retirement village residents originate from within 3km of their chosen village. D3 used this to map 143 hyper-local OOH placements across Metlifecare's network, locked in for cost efficiency and competitive exclusivity, layered with precision digital targeting within each catchment. The result was a 19% increase in lead volume and a 63% reduction in cost per lead.
NZMA's target students didn't trust institutions — and the real competition wasn't other training providers, it was apathy. D3 identified that Mai FM's breakfast show indexed at 3.2x the population average with NZMA's target demographic and built a 24-month content partnership around it — embedding the brand through student success stories, live campus events, and hosts experiencing training firsthand. The result was a fundamental shift in both demand and behaviour: a 37% increase in applications and a 17% improvement in first-day show-up rates.
ZIWI had never run above-the-line media and needed more than awareness they needed proof that investment drives sales. D3 mapped every stockist, identified peak traffic patterns, and deployed DOOH within a 1km radius during peak shopping windows only. A control group of unexposed stores provided clean, causal evidence of impact. In the US, the same precision logic was applied to conference buyers — mapping every touchpoint from airport to venue to arrive pre-primed. The result was a 40% sales uplift in targeted stores versus control, zero media wastage, and a foundational strategy now core to ZIWI's approach across ANZ and the US.
Milford identified a unique summer window where audience engagement rises while competitor activity and media costs fall. D3 capitalised on this by creating the Milford Summer Series - a content-led, multi-channel campaign combining beach activations, radio talent, and daily NZ Herald content.
Focused on delivering genuine financial guidance rather than product messaging, the campaign aligned with the goal-setting mindset of Kiwis over summer.
The result was a measurable commercial impact, including a 17% increase in KiwiSaver transfer market share and a 25% lift in wealth management enquiries, while achieving a disproportionate share of voice at lower cost.
Medical cannabis is 100% legal in New Zealand but stigma meant most patients didn't know legitimate pathways existed. D3 reframed the conversation by reclaiming the most recognised symbol of illegal cannabis culture, trainers on power lines, and repurposing it as a beacon for legitimate medical access. Designed to generate earned media as much as impressions, the campaign delivered a 26% referral traffic increase within a week, 400% above benchmark social engagement, and simultaneous surges in category and brand search.
Every KiwiSaver provider was claiming superior performance - so Milford chose a different game entirely. Rather than competing on advertising, D3 turned Milford's own fund managers and analysts into the media, appearing weekly across NZME radio, the NZ Herald, Three, and TVNZ. Over a five-year partnership, the approach delivered 10 percentage points of transfer market share growth, a conversion rate 8% above competitor average, and a category-leading trust position built on expertise rather than ad spend.
The Co-operative Bank couldn't outspend the Big Four - so the strategy had to be smarter. D3 built a brand-to-performance framework that connected brand activity directly to commercial outcomes, ran 'go dark' experiments to prove what switching it off actually cost, and targeted high-intent switchers at the moments that mattered most. The result: 32% brand search uplift, 171% growth in personal loan applications, and a 20% year-on-year lift in first home buyer applications.
Metlifecare faced the challenge of maintaining strong brand awareness while improving consideration to generate higher quality leads and support long-term sales success.