Pinning down progression can be difficult and vague to measure; for some, it’s taking their first mouthful while for others, it’s an excursion to the moon. ASB and True have explored the idea in a new campaign that relaunches the ‘One Step Ahead’ platform.
Having made its debut on Sunday night, the campaign is a fast-moving compilation of people making progress in a range of activities from small achievements to big accomplishments.
The campaign also features four real Kiwis who discuss what progress means to them including Kiwi shoe company Chaos & Harmony creative director Rebecca Anderson, 3D-limb printer Sarah Lin, LA-based tattoo artist Dan Smith and Black Ferns sevens player Ruby Tui.
The short and punchy videos are driven through ASB’s key media channels; social media, TVC and outdoor. Evans claims that the theme of progress encapsulates ASB’s ‘One Step Ahead’ slogan as it shows both how Kiwis measure progression, and how ASB can help Kiwis progress.
True joined forces with ASB in September 2017, where it picked up from Saatchi & Saatchi to relaunch the bank’s line ‘One Step Ahead’. The campaign is the first major project together since penning the partnership.
ASB general manager of marketing Shane Evans says ahead of the campaign, ASB set out to understand what progress means to New Zealand by conducting a survey with 1,000 Kiwis. It wanted to gauge how each individual measured progression and establish whether or not the idea of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ was still a key driver of success.
Instead, Evans says the results showed that 90 percent of respondents connected progress to their family’s well-being, as opposed to owning material possessions.
Additionally, managing director of True Steve Kane reinforced that people mark progress depending on both demographic and geographical elements. He argues that measuring progress isn’t always simple to categorise, for example owning a new car, or a flash new boat.
Kane believes the ASB campaign helps to humanise the concept by threading intangible progress such as relationships and bonds through the advertisements.
ASB has a master brand strategy, which aims to target all New Zealanders and to do that, it gives light to a mix of subcultures and ethnically diverse individuals.
Evans says the campaign accounts for the multiple avenues of progression, by shooting a wide range of content. He says that ASB made a conscious effort to shoot progression from a community point of view, a sports point of view, a financial point of view and a business point of view.
Stylistically, the action-packed advertisements align with the indie pop music track of Matt and Kim, which loops into ASB’s partnership with Universal Music Group New Zealand. The campaign was also bolstered by the help of Flying Fish director Jason Bock who helped facilitate the message as well as assist with the cinematography and respective digital elements of the piece.
Kane believes that on the global front, people are consuming media at a rate of knots and the style reflects that. He adds the track was used to provide a great sound for ASB and evoke people too look up and watch the content.
And there’s still more to come. Evans says ASB and True had a lot of fuel in the creative process and there’s now a catalogue of stories to be rolled out as the year progresses.
“We have a lot of stuff, we shot the hell out of it. There is no shortage of content and it is a flexible platform where there is no dedicated time frame,” says Kane.
Evans adds “We have a lot of content that we will continue to roll out, and the idea of progress will continue to evolve. It is a platform not a campaign as such, ‘One Step Ahead’ is who we are.”
Credits:
ASB
Christian May – Acting Executive General Manager Marketing and Communications
Shane Evans – General Manager Marketing
Bianca Osborne – Brand Manager
Emma Barker – Brand Manager
Emma-Rose Forrester – Associate Brand Manager
Sharon Moffatt – Head of Marketing Services
Jasmine Taggart – Social Media Specialist
True
Managing Director – Steve Kane
Head of Planning – Janisa Parag
Group Account Director – Kate Lennon
Account Director – Amie Spence
Executive Creative Director – Craig Pethybridge
Creative Directors – Dom Antelme and Ian Sweeney
Senior Creatives – Sarah Chernishov, Mike Ramsay and Duncan Blair
Head of Content – Nigel Sutton
Creative Technologist – Matt Ellwood
Flying Fish
Jason Bock – Director
Samantha Attenborough – Executive Producer
James Moore – Managing Director & Executive Producer
Post Production Company – Mandy VFX
Nathan Pickles – Offline Editor
Leon Woods – Online Editor
Anita Ward – Online Editor
Dave Gibson – Grade
Media
Carat New Zealand
