Unexpected words that unlock the deepest of mateships—

Post pandemic, now more than ever, young people are searching for connection. But they didn’t see a place for themselves in NZDF. It represented a loss of identity. A place where they wouldn’t belong. Fuelled by Hollywood, their parents, and assumptions.

Reality is, NZDF can help them forge bonds like nowhere else. We needed to show that the connection our audience was seeking could be found there in spades.

Enter CODEWORDS: unexpected words that unlock the deepest of mateships in NZDF.

We showcased the strength of bonds in NZDF, by feeding pairs of mates a word only they would recognise live on camera – sparking real, emotional, funny, epic shared stories.

The 15 CODEWORDS were then teased to our audience across OOH, Tik Tok, and Cinema to discover their unexpected origins. Wrapped in a vertical first campaign fit for how our audience consume content, CODEWORDS gave our audience an unfiltered insight into the depth of connection that life in NZDF could offer – and the extraordinary experiences that forged them.

Unlock the stories behind the codewords at codewords.nz