Work

The work, and what it returned.

Twenty years across brand side, agency side and the mid-market. Below are three recent engagements where I carried the number.

Brands and businesses I've led digital for

ANZ Bank IMDEX Skills Group OMD PHD Y&R Kathmandu Spark Latitude Air New Zealand OPSM AMP HyperCinema Veuve du Vernay Team Green Projects Euro Vintage Fonterra SKY TV NEON

HyperCinema · Auckland, NZ · Brand launch

Launching a world first in eight weeks.

The HyperCinema entrance in Auckland, with staff at the doors

2M+

People reached in Auckland

20%

Of all ticket sales from paid media

The brief

The world's first live AI experience had a venue, an opening date, and no market awareness. Eight weeks to make a very large noise in a city that had never heard of the category, with ticket sales as the secondary objective.

What I did

Built and ran the full multi-channel media plan across NZ Herald, Meta, TikTok and Google, with creative testing by format and a measurement setup that could attribute ticket revenue back to channel. Managed the media partners directly rather than through an agency layer.

The result

Over two million people reached in Auckland alone, 770,000+ TikTok views, and one fifth of all ticket sales attributed directly to paid media inside the launch window.

A brilliant collaborator on Season 1 of HyperCinema in Auckland. Friendly, clear, enthused, proactive, and has shown great results with over 770,000 TikTok views achieved.
Conrad Blight · Business Development Lead

Team Green Projects · Auckland, NZ · Lead generation

From zero social to leads that arrive weekly.

A timber pergola and deck built by Team Green Projects

+68.5%

Increase in total leads, year on year

Of total conversions from channels that produced none before

The brief

A reputable deck-building business with excellent Google reviews, no social presence at all, and lead flow that arrived in unpredictable bursts. Growth was capped by pipeline, not capability.

What I did

Built the content strategy and ad creative from scratch, then a full Meta and Google funnel with proper conversion tracking so every lead could be traced to a source. Opened new channels deliberately rather than all at once.

The result

Total leads up 68.5% year on year, with a predictable weekly flow the business could plan crews around. Channels that had generated nothing began contributing measurably.

My business was struggling to generate enough leads to sustain the growth we wanted. Dwain's response was immediate. The results have been great. Fantastic to work with and super contactable.
Cobus van Rensburg · Director, Team Green Projects

Veuve du Vernay · New Zealand · FMCG media

Record efficiency, flight after flight.

595K

New Zealanders reached in one summer campaign

1.7x

The reach of the previous four campaigns combined

The brief

A French sparkling brand competing for New Zealand shelf space twice a year on a fixed media budget. Every campaign had to outperform the last, with reporting the client could take to their distributor.

What I did

Fixed the media plan structure, negotiated buying harder, and built dimension-by-dimension reporting by placement, format, audience and daypart, so each flight started from evidence instead of instinct.

The result

595,000 New Zealanders reached in a single summer campaign. That is 1.7 times the reach of the previous four campaigns combined, on the same budget envelope.

Twenty years of references.

01 / 03

Dwain has been in the game long enough to have made the mistakes of the past, but also stays right up to date on the now of digital advertising. To say we made big steps forward at ANZ would be an understatement.

Phil ShackladyHead of CRM & Personalisation, Milford Asset Management

An experienced digital marketer who is not only technically skilled but also understands the power and importance of creative within digital. Instrumental in progressing our social strategy.

Susan BensemanHead of Media & Marketing Performance

Dwain helped us out with specialist guidance and implementation on a new product launch. He's a star. Knowledgeable, friendly, patient and gets great results.

Dr Miles GregoryPop-up Globe creator · Author