It was David vs Goliath as the Waikato Times took on the NZ Herald in the mighty Waikato,  identifying approximately 23,000 rural customers to talk to.

The NZ Herald dominated sales and subscriptions, but like every Goliath, it has its downfalls.
The news was nationwide, focused on Auckland, and not local.

So the Waikato Times saw an opportunity to get more customers on board and sampling the
local offering in the hope they would switch away from the big boys.

Through the use of clever profiling from the existing subscriber base and identifying likely households with similar profiles in the Waikato, Fairfax went out with a tidy acquisition offer of a free subscription to non-subscribers in these areas.

Despite people thinking that only smart TVs, apps and Facebook deliver the news, 140 new customers took up the free trial out of a test base of 2,300, and others converted to a full-time, paid subscription, delivering pleasing additional lifetime value for a segment that would not otherwise have been able to be reached.