Growing an audience from the ground up

‍The project:

Once Were Gardeners is a television series exploring mātauranga Māori, māra kai, and the deep relationships between whenua, whānau, and identity in Aotearoa.

Social Good partnered with Black Iris Production to launch and grow the series’ digital presence, building awareness and community engagement around the show as it aired on Whakaata Māori and Māori+.

‍The challenge:

The series needed to establish an audience quickly while competing in a crowded digital landscape. Telling stories of Mātauranga Māori gardening would appeal to Māori, but to extend that reach, we needed these stories to reach tauiwi as well. 

Starting from scratch, the campaign required:

• Growing social media audiences across multiple platforms
• Creating awareness of a new TV series about Māori gardening
• Inspiring viewers to watch the show as it aired
• Creating meaningful engagement around the kaupapa of māra kai and mātauranga Māori.
• Protection of Māori audiences as paid ads draw in trolls 
• Growing reach on a tight budget

‍Our Role:

We led digital marketing and social media execution for the series, establishing the show’s online presence and supporting its launch.

Our work focused on:

• Launching and managing the show’s social channels
• Finding the best cuts to pique interest in the show 
• Supporting audience growth and engagement through digital promotion
• Nurturing the community
  

The goal was to ensure the social experience reflected the ngākau of the show, i.e. stories of whenua, healing, community, and knowledge sharing.

The results:

We delivered a strong campaign across all platforms, growing the collective audience and building a highly engaged community. There is a clear demand for a second series.

Collaboration and well-timed clips performed strongly at no additional cost. Our host, Kara Rickard, has a significant social media presence, as do several guests featured on the show. By collaborating where possible, we were able to extend the campaign’s reach beyond our own audience without increasing the budget.

We also responded to key political moments. When a significant moment featuring Hana-Rawhiti emerged, sharing her clip at the right time helped drive further interest in the show.

Engagement was higher than we typically see for campaigns of this kind. Audiences watched the show with us, shared positive feedback, and amplified the stories through their own networks.

This success was driven by:

• Sharing the right moments at the right time
• Leveraging the networks of those featured in the clips
• Strong audience appetite for these kinds of stories
  
  

Together, these elements helped build momentum and grow a highly engaged audience around the series.

The impact:

The campaign successfully introduced Once Were Gardeners to a new digital audience while creating conversations around māra kai, mātauranga Māori, and connection to whenua.

The clips shared resonated strongly with audiences, helping build an engaged community around the series and extend its reach beyond broadcast. By the end, people were asking for another series - exactly what any filmmaker and funder wants to hear!