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Work Case study 01

Provincial Rugby

Social, content and match day for the Hilux NPC, the Farah Palmer Cup presented by Hilux and the Heartland Championship

Client
New Zealand Rugby
Working together
Since 2024. Three seasons of the Hilux NPC, the Farah Palmer Cup and the Heartland Championship.
What we do
Social, content and match day
New Zealand Rugby social work by Taylor Haskell

01The brief

Three competitions. Every weekend.

New Zealand Rugby's provincial competitions need channels that feel like the game on a Saturday: fast, local and worth sharing, for three competitions at once, every weekend from July to October.

  1. Goal 01

    Grow the audience on every channel

    Result: 39,000+ new followers in 2026

  2. Goal 02

    Make the content travel

    Result: Instagram shares up 122% and Facebook interactions up 57% on 2025

  3. Goal 03

    Find the clips that travel

    Result: Reece MacDonald's try did 1.6M views, the season's top clip

02What it achieved

What it achieved

Since 2024

134.4M

views on the posts we published across the 2025 and 2026 seasons (Facebook and Instagram, 16 July to 27 October each year)

  • 118Mviews across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in 2026
  • 39,000+new followers
  • 1.6Mviews on Reece MacDonald's try, the season's top clip
  • +122%Instagram shares on 2025

03How we did it

The work behind the numbers

We run social for Provincial Rugby for New Zealand Rugby: the plan, the content, live match day and the numbers after it.

  1. 01

    Plan the season

    Every competition planned before a ball is kicked: the rounds, the stories and the big weekends.

  2. 02

    Run match day

    Live every weekend, with a creator we brief each round, and photographers and videographers from our network on the big days.

  3. 03

    Clip what travels

    Mid season we pulled apart 337 match clips. Tries where someone beats a man outdrew crash overs twelve to one, so we changed what got clipped off the feed, not how it was edited.

  4. 04

    Report and adjust

    What worked, what didn't and what changes next round, inside NZR's own systems, from the photo library to the NZRPA imagery rules.

04The work

01 / 10
Hilux NPC 2026 Thank You Fans graphic with fans from all 14 unions
The full story, every number

Three seasons of Provincial Rugby: the Hilux NPC, the Farah Palmer Cup presented by Hilux and the Heartland Championship. We plan the season, make the content, run match day with a creator we brief each round, and report on what worked.

Provincial Rugby 2026

  • 118M views across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
  • 39,000+ new followers
  • Instagram shares up 122% and Facebook interactions up 57% on 2025
  • Top clip: Reece MacDonald's try, 1.6M views

What the numbers taught us

Mid season we pulled apart 337 match clips. Tries where someone beats a man outdrew crash overs twelve to one, and a 25 second clip beat a 12 second one. So we changed what got clipped off the feed, not how it was edited.

The work sits inside NZR's systems, from the photo library to the NZRPA imagery rules, and the big weekends get photographers, videographers and creators from our network around the country.

Next case study

Super Rugby Aupiki

Social strategy and content for New Zealand's professional women's competition

Got a season, a campaign or a channel that needs a lift?

Talk to ustaylor@thedabblecreative.co.nz

Based in New Zealand, open to remote work anywhere.