Telco One NZ rings MMM changes and wins

Summary

Marketing measurement has long been a challenge for major brands, with insights often arriving too late to inform timely decisions. At One NZ, this issue was front and centre. Richard McRae, Head of Media & Digital Marketing, recalls how delayed reporting left his team operating with outdated information in a fast-moving market.

The shift came when the telco engaged Mutinex to transform its approach to Market Mix Modelling (MMM). What started as a push for faster results evolved into a broader change in how the business assessed performance, chose partners, and allocated resources.

The independence and speed offered by Mutinex gave McCrae’s team greater confidence in their decision-making and more time to focus on strategy. For One NZ, marketing measurement is no longer an exercise in hindsight — it has become an active driver of agility and smarter investment in a volatile environment.

Stuck in the slow lane

New Zealand telco, One NZ, had a problem. Their marketing measurement was taking too long. Results arrived six months late, when the business had already moved on, and all the competitive dynamics had shifted. Twice over. 

But since switching to Mutinex for their Market Mix Modelling (MMM), the team has found its rhythm. Head of Media & Digital Marketing Richard McCrade sums up the change: fast answers, confident decisions, and a team focused on strategy not spreadsheets.

The freedom to choose

The move wasn’t just cosmetic. It was a strategic liberation. As McRae recalls, “It meant we finally had the freedom to choose our own partners.”  And when it came to MMM, that autonomy paid off. “Our media partner FCB helped us work through the advanced measurement options, and together we decided Mutinex was the right choice, based on their independence, speed to insight, user-friendly software, and training support. All of that means we can focus on ongoing optimisation, not just reporting.”

Then the freedom to choose became the power to transform.

Fast answers, accelerated change

The previous measurement approach had been painfully slow, with McRae’s team making decisions based on ancient data. “Our previous models were updated around twice a year,” he says. “By the time we’d gathered the data, input it, and got the results, it was probably six, seven, eight months old.

Eight months in telco-world is practically geological. With recession biting and inflation soaring, delayed decisions meant missed opportunities. Or worse – wrong moves at the worst possible time. Now, One NZ operates at the speed of competition, and monthly model updates deliver insights within four to six weeks.

McRae’s verdict is unequivocal: “Being able to have a much stronger view of what’s working and what’s not… now we can make decisions in the moment.”

Why independence matters

Trust trumps everything. And for McRae, choosing an independent MMM provider was a non-negotiable. “The reason that we’ve gone for a fully independent solution like Mutinex is because we want to have full confidence in the results that we’re getting back,” he states, “If there’s a perception that there’s maybe some bias, that erodes trust and you can’t make decisions.”

The mathematics were simple: no trust, no action. “Having that full independent solution was really important to us,” McRae continues. “You want to be able to get to the insights quicker rather than debating the validity of the model.”

But One NZ isn’t just getting faster answers, they’re saving incredible amounts of time. 

From three days to one hour

Enter MAITE, Mutinex’s AI agent that lets you query your GrowthOS model data, providing an answer in seconds. “There were reports we just wouldn’t have the time to do manually,” McRae explains. “It would take a person working full-time about three days to pull that data.”

Three days became one hour. The breakthrough came when a team member used MAITE to analyse channel performance. “It took her about an hour and a lot of that time was spent just tweaking her presentation slides,” he recalls. The maths says it all: 24 working hours down to one. A time reduction of nearly 96 per cent. “Now we can get into more actionable insights and make changes quicker, while they’re still relevant and impactful,” McRae adds.

The team runs MAITE analyses at least monthly, and each query saves the telco 23 hours. The term ‘game-changer’ would be an understatement.

The great rebalancing

Armed with fast answers and trusted data, One NZ made a bold strategic pivot: rebalancing their performance-to-brand spend ratio. 

Selling the shift to internal stakeholders wasn’t easy. “What they hear is: we’re going to reduce the budget that lets us talk about our great price-points and hit our sales targets, so we can spend it on a nice brand ad.”

The timing made it worse. Economic headwinds. Uncertainty. Hesitance and resistance. However, Mutinex’s unbiased data provided the backbone for difficult conversations. “Having an unbiased source of data that we could rely on helped give us the confidence that we need to go, yes, this is working,” says McRae.

The results surprised everyone. “We did some longer form TV advertising… we’ve seen that it’s been one of our stronger performers in terms of short-term ROI as well,” McRae reveals. Counter-intuitive, perhaps. But now the marketing team had hard evidence.

Speed meets confidence

For One NZ, their new vendor delivers on two fronts: velocity and certainty. “We would definitely recommend Mutinex,” McRae states. “Their speed to market, and the speed to insights you get from the platform, are indispensable.”

And the partnership extends beyond software: “Working with a company that is constantly looking to make improvements – that mirrors our philosophy at One NZ.”

It’s the kind of confidence that can only accelerate growth.