gettingUthru - Rapp New Zealand
ANZ Bank
Issue 12 | September 2009
Agency
Rapp New Zealand
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director:Wayne Pick, Associate Creative Director:Pat Murphy, Creative Director Tribal DDB: Daniel Wright, Senior Copywriter:Susan Young, Senior Designer:Katie Benge,
Production Team
Production Manager:Marcel de Ruiter, Creative Services Manager: Paul Stephenson
Other Credits
Client Services Director:Jackie Shaw, Senior Account Manager:Iva Steffalova, Account Manager:Afshin Saffari, Account Director Tribal DDB: David Rhoades, Communications managers ANZ Bank:James Perrin, Kim Versfeld
Date
February 2009
Background
ANZ is one of Asia Pacific’s oldest, largest banks. They recognised that they weren’t connecting with the potentially lucrative student audience, but didn’t want to resort to $40 bribes to open accounts like their competitors. For 2009, they decided to take a more long-term, sustainable approach, with a campaign that was customer-centric, and scalable enough to evolve year on year.
They wanted to provide students with relevant products, based on their real needs, and communicate in student-friendly language – without trying too hard to be cool.
Idea
Students don’t care about banking but they do care about having no money. And you can’t tell them anything – they already know it all. So instead of just forcing products on them, the strategy was to offer real help and advice that could make a difference to their lives. ‘gettingUthru.co.nz’ was the online hub of all the activity, with money-saving videos, and bloig areas for students to submit survival tips of their own. They could also set budgets, search for local deals, look for jobs, find the right products, and open accounts.
Results
For the first time, students actually chose to communicate with the bank, using the website to create a community for student survival. In just one month, over 10,000 students flooded online, posting hundreds of tips, from the practical, to the tongue-in-cheek, to the downright desperate. By the end of Orientation Week alone, record numbers students had opened accounts – exact figures can’t be revealed for confidentiality reasons, but it was a 10% increase year-on-year, without any account-opening incentives. Proving that, with the right approach, banks and students can speak the same language. And the conversation is just getting started.
Our Thoughts
The sentiment of this work feels right. And, as their submission states, it’s an idea that can run year after year. I’m not convinced the creative work is as good as it could be with an idea like this. Maybe it will get bolder as the people get more familiar with the idea but it’s nice to see a bank that’s talking with, not at, its student customers.