84 CASE STUDY
marketingmag.com.auMARKETING 2019Background: For Te Wiki o te reo
Māori (Māori Language Week) 2018,
Spark was privileged to partner with
Te Aka Māori Dictionary and Google
to support the revitalisation of New
Zealand’s indigenous language,
te reo Māori. Together we aimed
to inspire and encourage all New
Zealanders to explore the nation’s
fi rst language together and make
te reo Māori a greater part of the
everyday, one translation at a time.
How?
By launching Kupu – a cutting
edge learning experience app that
translates the world around us into
te reo Māori one picture at a time.
Our long-term collaboration with
New Zealand’s best technology,
Māori language and digital
platform expert made Kupu a
reality: Te Aka Māori Dictionary
brings mana (honour, respect) and
a pool of invaluable knowledge,
guiding the project culturally from
concept through to creation, while
Google brings its expertise and
state-of-the-art machine learning
technologies.
Objectives: The goal was simple:
encourage Kiwis to download the
Kupu app and use it to explore the
world around them. Specifi cally, in
the fi rst week of launch, we were
tasked with achieving 16,000 app
downloads (with a 26,000 stretch
downloads goal). We knew that 90
percent of branded apps receive
fewer than 10,000 downloads, but
thought 16,000 was a realistic goal.
We also aimed for a 500 percent
in-app interaction rate – meaning
each user would perform at least
fi ve interactions by taking a photo or
playing an audio clip.Strategy: Our remit was to
infl uence an ‘All of New Zealand’
audience: an audience classifi cation
usually so broad it’s hard to reach
effectively. With the benefi t of being
one of New Zealand’s largest mobile
providers, the opportunity appeared
obvious: the answer was already
sitting in 3.8 million Kiwis’ pockets.
If we could place a dedicated te
reo translation app in every NewZealander’s pocket, we would be
well-placed to help the nation make
te reo learning a greater part of
every day. We knew that mobile had
the power to overcome key barriers
to te reo learning: it facilitates
learning in any environment, enables
incremental learning opportunities
and is readily accessible and
available to anyone, 24/7.
And with Te Wiki o te reo
Māori 2018, we had an
opportunity to reach and engage
all New Zealanders with a mobile
experience that tapped into a
widespread pride of and growing
desire to embrace New Zealand’s
Māori culture and traditions.Execution: The proposition
was simple: take a photo, learn a
language. The name was equally
simple: ‘kupu’ is the direct te reo
Māori translation of ‘word.’
Kupu is an entirely new fusion
of two Google technologies: the
Cloud Vision API (application
programming interface), which
uses machine learning to identifyOld language,
new audience
Campaign
Kupu
Client
Spark
Agency
Colenso BBDO