The Partner
Tairāwhiti Gisborne is a regional destination organisation responsible for promoting the region across New Zealand and abroad. With diverse tourism experiences spanning outdoor adventure, food and wine, arts and culture, and wellness, the challenge was not a lack of content but clarity on what to prioritise. The team needed to understand which audiences showed the strongest intent, how different creative styles influenced behaviour, and how campaign data could shape website decisions ahead of their yearly planning.
Data Story Services
Conversion Rate Optimisation
Paid Advertising
Website Development
Quick wins
Increase in intent to plan and book Gisborne trip
Increase in highly engaged website traffic
Increase in conversion rate from website sessions to operator listings
The Challenge
Gisborne had multiple audience segments and a wide range of experiences to promote. The website reflected this breadth. However, the client had limited data guiding which experiences should be prioritised, simplified, or restructured. The key question became: Can paid audience segmentation be used not just to drive traffic, but to validate website content decisions and strategic priorities?
It was unclear which audience archetypes drove the strongest engagement and downstream intent.
There was limited visibility into how different creative approaches influenced on-site behaviour.
Website structure and content priorities were based on internal assumptions rather than evidence.
The strategy
By observing how users engaged with different archetypes, creative formats, and landing pages, we aimed to identify what should be prioritised on the website, what could be simplified or removed, and which audiences show the strongest intent to explore further. The learnings from this test are intended to shape future creative development, market-specific strategy, and how the destination is represented across digital channels in 2026 and beyond.
What we did:
Use paid media segmentation as a validation framework for website strategy.
Developed four clearly defined audience archetypes and aligned each to dedicated landing pages and tailored creative.
Tested format variations including short video, long video, single images and carousels, with and without graphic overlays, to isolate clarity versus complexity effects.
Measured both platform metrics and behavioural signals including engagement rate, scroll depth, rage clicks, quick backs and member referrals to assess true intent.
Developed four clearly defined audience archetypes and aligned each to dedicated landing pages and tailored creative.
Tested format variations including short video, long video, single images and carousels, with and without graphic overlays, to isolate clarity versus complexity effects.
Measured both platform metrics and behavioural signals including engagement rate, scroll depth, rage clicks, quick backs and member referrals to assess true intent.
The results
Audience segmentation provided clear evidence of the content themes and formats that drove intent. This directly informed website optimisation priorities.
The outcome provided clear strategic direction across several key areas. These findings enabled the team to prioritise high intent archetypes within website navigation, simplify creative presentation across channels and reposition CTAs higher on key landing pages. This helped account for shallow scroll behaviour, and differentiate market strategy.
The four audiences tested were:
- Active- Travellers motivated by outdoor activity and adventure including surfing, hiking, biking and exploration.
- Wild- Visitors drawn to raw nature experiences such as hunting, fishing, diving and remote outdoor recreation.
- Chill- Leisure focused travellers interested in relaxation, food and wine, wellness and slower travel experiences.
- Creative- Culturally curious visitors motivated by arts, storytelling, heritage, museums and creative communities.
Key Takeaways
- Audience segmentation can validate website decisions, not just media efficiency.
- Behavioural signals such as scroll depth and quick backs are critical to content prioritisation.
- Archetype strength varies by market and should shape investment allocation.
- Paid media testing can function as a controlled experiment for broader digital strategy.
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