Despite New Zealand’s strong entrepreneurial culture, many business owners approach domain purchases with a DIY mindset, often opting for a single domain without considering the broader importance of securing multiple extensions like .nz, .co.nz, and .kiwi. This stems from a lack of awareness and saliency around the value of protecting their digital identity across multiple platforms.
Web Antler partnered with Neurospot, producing research that revealed opportunity spaces during the domain purchase decision-making process. Additionally, the overwhelming number of options and decisions involved in setting up a business online can create inertia for potential buyers.
"New Zealanders have a strong DIY mentality and will often give things a go. People make these decisions as best they can, as quickly as possible, within the knowledge they have."
To tackle the clients challenges, Web Antler developed a strategy grounded in data-driven research and behavioural insights. By conducting behavioural audits and user testing, we identified key barriers and opportunities in the domain purchasing journey. This included addressing a lack of familiarity with domains and reframing the decision-making process to emphasize the value of domain purchases decisions.
Through these insights, Web Antler crafted a comprehensive approach that balances innovative thinking with actionable solutions, ensuring future campaigns not only drive awareness but also shift behaviours, creating long-term growth potential for the registry.
Central to the strategy is reframing the goal of “buying a domain” to building a secure digital identity. This approach emphasises the digital ID aspect of domains—such as securing you .nz, .co.nz, and .kiwi—as essential for protecting a brand online and preventing domain squatting.
In order to further develop this approach, it became clear that a new brand identity was needed to tap into the social identity and the cultural narratives of Kiwi startup businesses. Thus, JumpStarter was born.
This was the beginning of JumpStarter, where we are now actively ensuring that campaigns that are designed to connect with the motivations and values of specific audience segments are making domain purchases feel personal and relevant.
"Reframe the goal of 'buying a domain' from the outset to focus on securing a digital identity."
Web Antler’s strategy for the client is built to deliver measurable results and long-term growth by creating a new consumer-facing brand entity, 'JumpStarter', to align with the hidden behavioural insights that were discovered through user research.
