The Best New Zealand Brands on Social Media this year

As we wrap up 2022, many of us will be taking time to reflect and celebrate our biggest wins.

In the world of social media, we’ve seen some incredible results for brands in New Zealand – showing that they’re really understanding their audience and using social to grow and thrive.

We’ve pulled together the top social media posts of 2022 from the brands in our Top 25 New Zealand scoreboard, and identified those that have made a real impact.

We’ve also analysed what lessons we all can learn from these going forward – there's some good ones!

P.S. Curious where your brand fits in? If you’re not a Zavy user yet, download our free Social Media Content Benchmarks report to find out how you stack up against your direct industry competitors.

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5.  WHITTAKER’S

Starting out the top five best performers on social this year was none other than chocolate manufacturer Whittaker’s.

Whittaker’s top performing posts all kept the imagery simple –  letting the product’s signature packaging speak for itself. It’s notable that the top post of the year was a special edition of the Creamy Milk label for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week). People offered their support and encouragement for this initiative in the comments – boosting the post further and providing an excellent opportunity for Whittakers to remind consumers of their local roots.

Lesson: Let your product sing

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4. NEW WORLD

Coming in fourth is full-service supermarket chain New World, whose social media posts proved the effectiveness of a good social media competition. 

Users were quick to join the various competitions throughout the year, tagging friends in comments and spreading the posts further. Social media is a great place to run these competitions to grow your followers through people sharing and tagging friends in the comments. Just be careful not to overwhelm your audience with too many competitions and too little brand-building, which could risk damaging your brand in the long run.

Lesson: Competition posts can give you a follower boost

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3. MITRE 10

Another brand using competition posts to boost reach and engagement is Mitre 10 – with all three of their best performing posts also promoting a chance to win various assorted prizes and goodies.

Their top post encouraged people to wish a Merry Christmas to someone they care about in the comments to enter the draw – leading to over 13,000 comments from people around the country, tagging in their friends and whānau. This was a genius way of getting people emotionally-connected to the brand through personal storytelling while boosting reach and engagement.

Lesson: Get people emotionally invested

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2. MCDONALDS

You think a huge global brand can’t do local content well? Think again. McDonalds New Zealand nailed social light and heart-warming content this year with a funny April Fools Joke, simple pop-culture references and a feel-good story about an ex-employee winning their Monopoly campaign.

McDonald’s posts are proof you that making your audience feel connected to you is always possible – even if you’re one of the biggest brands in the world – and that social media is a great way to create this connection.

Lesson: Use humour and storytelling to create connections

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1. AIR NEW ZEALAND

Air New Zealand is the clear winner of 2022 social – with an especially strong performance on Instagram, taking out 9 out of the top 10 spots.

The airline’s social posts were a mix of brand videos and photography, with its most successful being its high-budget Christmas video set to a soundtrack of a te reo Māori Silent Night. It was a great example of authentically-Kiwi content – and Kiwis loved it. The same could be said for posts about new flights starting or old flights reopening – the copy referenced New Zealand locations and the photos of the Air New Zealand planes made the posts easy to understand in a quick glance. 

Lesson: Keep it Kiwi

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