Puhimoana Ariki Collective selected for Ministry of Health’s National Bowel Screening Campaign

After a competitive RFP process, the Puhimoana Ariki Collective has been selected as the agency to develop and roll out the National Bowel Screening Programme (NBSP) campaign for the Ministry of Health.

Puhimoana Ariki is a collective of three Aotearoa-owned agencies: Rotorua and Wellington based Māori agency Wawata Creative, Pacific agency Bright Sunday headquartered in South Auckland and The Digital Café in Wellington.

Puhimoana Ariki Collective Creative Director Inia Maxwell says the campaign is the first for the newly formed collective.

“We’d talked about forming a collective to provide a true Māori, Pacific and local solution. The bowel screening campaign was the opportunity we’d been waiting for to come together to achieve better outcomes for our people,” says Inia.

“It’s humbling that our first campaign will help to save lives and we thank the Ministry of Health and the panel for appointing us to deliver it.”

Puhimoana Ariki Collective Strategy and Pacific Creative lead Amatailevi Stella Muller says the win validates that Māori and Pacific marketing frameworks have currency.

"This is an exciting opportunity for our collective to evidence and demonstrate a creative and campaign development process that truly embodies Māori and Pacific ways of engaging, thinking, working and creating,” says Amatailevi Stella.

“What sets us apart is our ‘deep knowing’ and insights informed by our lived experiences, relationships and connections to our communities - this is our value add.”

Matt McNeil, from The Digital Café, says there’s more work to be done to get it right for priority audiences.
“Through our experience working with Māori and Pacific audiences in Aotearoa the traditional mainstream media buying approach has always been sub-optimal,” says Matt.

“Forming this collective has enabled us to deliver a programme of ground-up, grass roots, community and social led communications that will better connect with these communities”.
NBSP Manager Cathy Whiteside says the panel was impressed with Puhimoana Ariki Collective’s credentials and commitment to communicating with Māori and Pacific audiences, and their very strong community networks.
“Bowel screening participation rates for Māori and Pacific peoples are well below those for non-Māori, non-Pacific populations, and this campaign is all about changing that. We are excited to be working with Puhimoana Ariki Collective on this extremely important campaign.” says Cathy.

The NBSP campaign, which will launch in June/July 2022, will promote public awareness about bowel screening, with a focus on increasing participation, particularly for eligible Māori and Pacific people, and disabled people. It seeks to complement and enhance the comprehensive work already underway locally and regionally by district health boards, and to tap into the insights and learnings from kaimahi.

The campaign has strong input from a campaign advisory group that has broad sector representation. There is also ongoing input from a consumer rōpū, clinical advisory group, and communications advisory group.

The NBSP is free for people aged 60 to 74 years. It aims to save lives by finding bowel cancer at an early stage when it can often be successfully treated.

BACKGROUND

Wawata Creative is a Māori-owned full service communications agency established in 2014. Based in Rotorua and Wellington, the agency leads - Inia Maxwell (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Rangiwewehi), Rongopai Stirling-Maxwell (Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāi Tahu) and Sam Robinson (Ngāti Raukawa) specialise in Māori engagement and weaving Māori narratives and creative into messaging, that resonates with all audiences.

Bright Sunday is a marketing, communications and creative agency based in South Auckland specialising in engaging Pacific and underserved audiences. Founded in 2010, Bright Sunday is owned by Amatailevi (Samoan Chief Title) Stella Muller (Samatau, Masina) who together with her husband Robert Muller (Nukunuku) lead a team of ten and work with an extensive network of Pacific, Māori and like-minded creatives, cultural experts and marketing practitioners.

The Digital Café is a Wellington-based, locally-owned media agency founded in November 2016 by media stalwarts Matt McNeil and Antony Young. The Digital Café is a team of eleven and provides media planning, buying, measurement and management services to public and private sector clients all around Aotearoa.