NZ By The Numbers October 232

This quarter we’re indulging our inner nerd and talking about all things data related to NZ. We understand that not everyone gets as pumped about column charts and dashboards like we do, but we promise it will be worth it. So that being said, let’s jump right into it!

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Trends

1. Supermarket Price Increases 🛒

What product do you think increased the most in price over lockdown? Drum roll please...  Limes! They increased an astonishing 143% 

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Thanks to an anonymous Reddit user we managed to get a hold of supermarket pricing data, which compares the pricing of over 6,000 products during July vs. September (when everyone was in lockdown).

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It’s evident that looking after your pet has become more expensive with a significant 5.8% jump in prices, with product lines like Purina increasing by as much as 30-65%.

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There are many factors that influence shopping prices. These can be caused by the volume of supply, cost of importing (container costs), and general inflationary pressures. But you can’t help but think the government should be focussing on the markup and margins that supermarkets could be making, as a result of this volatility.

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Here is a breakdown of the top 10 price increases for certain categories

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Something to note is that this product data is only representative of one particular supermarket chain, but it is interesting information nonetheless!

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2. New Zealand’s Meme Game is Going Strong 💪

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Something magic happens when you combine a team of just 5 million, a DIY attitude, and a unique humour. You get some 🔥 memes.

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Some of the fastest growing social pages in NZ are using meme content, for example:

• NZ Lockdown Memes (109k followers)
• Shit you should care about (3.4m followers)
• Backing The Kiwi Meme (64.5k followers)

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People froth at this content, with average engagement rates of 1.53% (shit you should care about) to a whopping 9.76% for NZ Lockdown Memes. To put that in perspective, the Unite Against Covid instagram engagement rate is currently at 2.02%.

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Using Memes In Your Marketing Strategy

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We’ve been using memes more and more in our ads, and marketing strategies for clients, with fantastic results to show for it. Users love them, as they’re heaps more interesting and enjoyable than a traditional ad.

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This Four Words ad is a great example:

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It’s got a really high engagement rate of 14% (for comparison, the average paid ad has an engagement rate between 0.18% - 0.27%), and generates an excellent number of conversions too.

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Meme hesitancy definitely exists though, many clients and people we chat to are a bit apprehensive to jump into this space. Fair enough too, it’s less professional, can be hit and miss, and requires a good knowledge of the meme trends of the moment - so might not be the best fit for every brand.

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But gee, if you can integrate it into your strategy, it certainly performs well! We’d highly recommend anyone thinking about this to test it out - helping to make the social feeds that little bit more interesting.

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Tools🔧

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In the spirit of our data-centric edition, we’ve got a couple of tools for you to help with generating and analyzing form responses.

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1. Typeform 📋

A personal favourite for building and designing simple landing pages for surveys & lead capture. Conversion rates from Typeform are always much higher than other survey tools.

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2. Akin📊

Made locally, Akin is a survey analyzer that creates clusters out of your data, highlights frequently mentioned words in responses, and makes the results publicly shareable. Ideal as an additional tool for anyone interested in numbers. Check out their demo for an example of how it can give actionable insights.

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3. SparkToro ✨

SparkToro is an Audience Intelligence platform. It’s designed to give marketers a deeper understanding of their audience, including what they’re talking about, who they follow & engage with on a range of online platforms, and more!

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Inspiration 💡

1. Welly’s Golden Hour Photo Competition 📸

We’ve just wrapped up the Welly Golden Hour photo competition for 2021. Such an awesome response, with 622 photo submissions and over 2000 votes. Check out how epic the winners were 👇

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If you want to see the leaderboard results - here’s the podium.The winners got some epic prizes, and we’ve contacted people who won spot prizes.

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Diving into the photo submissions, it looks like the best spots for taking golden hour photos are Te Whiti Riser in Lower Hutt, Paekākāriki, and the Kāpiti Coast!

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We’ll be sure to update our Best Sunrise & Sunset spot blog to include all these spots. Really appreciate everyone who participated, we’re already getting amped for next year’s competition.

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2. Bird of the Year 🦉

On the 18th of October, the Bird of the Year competition kicked off. Now it’s reached it’s 16th year, this campaign by Forest & Bird usually captures the country by storm.

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I flippin love how this campaign introduces a bit of friendly competition to raise awareness & support for NZ’s birdlife.

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This year, drama struck the list when the long tailed bat made a controversial debut in the BOTY competition, then continued to secure first place #scandal

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The Aro team would like to make honourable mention of our top pick - the Royal Spoonbill. 2021 wasn't the Royal Spoonbills year, but #dollardollarspoonbill2022

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That’s it from us! Want more? Sign up for more updates delivered to your inbox 4 times a year 👇

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Thanks for reading,
Tim, Jonty & The Aro Digital Team 🤙