The new-look All Blacks-Black Ferns app is coming in the next few weeks. Image / NZR
NZR has recognised the need for one cohesive digital destination for its growing international and local fan base – offering the likes of exclusive video, live scoring, player profiles, ticketing and merchandise sales.
It should also end any strategic confusion – with the organisation now able to focus on a single owned digital destination and brand (and the important first-party data that comes with that) while also building its social media presence and third-party data on other channels.
NZR chairman David Kirk told TVNZ’s Q+A that “a big chunk of millions” had been spent on NZR+, although he couldn’t confirm it was as much as $20m, as some reports have suggested.
NZR+ launched in August 2023 as one of the whizz-bang content and marketing initiatives under NZ Rugby’s new Silverlake investor overlords – as Herald senior rugby writer Gregor Paul reported that year, NZ Rugby was targeting one million registrations by the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup and ended up with around 60,000.
Today, that number sits at just under 450,000. NZ Rugby had initially been targeting an ultimate figure of five million.
“It’s tracked okay in terms of the number of people who have actually engaged with us, but in terms of the signed-up, really valuable fans … that’s not [at] a level that would be material for our economics,” Kirk told Q+A.
“Basically, the return on that is low … but in business, not everything is hit out of the park. There’s a range of different things that you need to undertake, and you need to undertake them in a measured way so that you’re not blowing the budget on just one thing.
“But that is certainly something that’s underperformed compared to our hopes and expectations at the beginning.”
NZ Rugby chair David Kirk. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Kirk was adamant that NZ Rugby needed its own digital presence and brand.
“We’ve got to have an owned digital channel to our fans … otherwise you’re building it through someone else’s infrastructure, and someone else.
“The reason we need to own the fans is that we need to be able to demonstrate to sponsors around the world and media around the world, that we can put those fans either on their products, if it’s media, or put their products in front of those fans.”
A NZ Rugby spokesman said the organisation had changed the distribution model of its content two years ago, “and NZR+ is one way we connect with fans”.
“Fans watch content across a number of platforms, including YouTube, which has seen the All Blacks channel grow to 1.35 million followers, up from 500k when this strategy started in 2023.
“We regularly recalibrate the content strategy, particularly as fan behaviours change. This includes an increasing focus on short-form vertical video content.”
In recent years, NZR had reduced the cost base for content production by a compound annual growth rate of 40%.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.