Impulse Saver

Background

Westpac’s purpose is ‘to help New Zealanders use money to get to where they dream of being’.

Kiwis don't use money wisely. They are 23rd out of 29 OECD nations in terms of saving habits. The Government, media and even international credit rating agencies are talking about it.

Research into their impulse spending habits revealed that each day, 4.2m Kiwis spend $16.1m on impulsive purchases.

So if Westpac were to become the world’s first bank to create an Impulse Saving product, they would live their brand’s purpose in a truly surprising way.

Idea

At the TED conference, Rory Sutherland made the brilliant observation that “marketing has done a very good job of creating opportunities for impulse buying… we’ve never created the opportunity for impulse saving”.

Inspired by this, an iPhone app was created that interfaces directly with Westpac online banking, allowing customers to transfer a pre-determined amount from their transactional account to their savings account at the touch of a button.

This product was advertised with outdoor and direct response advertising, in-branch advertising and PR.

Because iPhone usage is still limited in New Zealand, only a few hundred actual sign-ups were expected. What was important was that all Westpac customers saw the bank as innovative and doing things differently.

Results

Impulse Saver was launched late February 2011, and therefore measured brand, business or behavioral results are not yet available.

However to date the Impulse Saver product has exceeded Westpac’s uptake target by 259%, with over one third of all Westpac Customers with iPhones downloading the app. In excess of $400,000 worth of free media coverage has been generated and continues to grow with coverage from all the major news channels.

"This new product encouraging New Zealanders to save will do more to improve our brand reputation than traditional paid-advertising,"  said George Frazis, CEO, Westpac New Zealand Limited.

Our Thoughts

I have challenged Rory Sutherland about his enthusiasm for ‘behavioural economics’. And, if I’m honest, he was a bit stiff about it. But BM seems to me to be trying to turn into a science what is an art. Of course, it creates a living for a whole bunch of people who use it to apply process rather than analysis.

In the old days, we used to call it having an idea. And the way you have ideas is not by rote but by dint of a little inspiration and not a little application.

John Hegarty, for instance, wopuld say this Westpac idea is a straightforward case of zagging when everyone else is zigging. Do the opposite of what is the norm and you always create surprise. Sometimes you even change behaviours.