The Co-operative Bank, with Y&R, is celebrating its ‘Happy Rebate Day’ with some trickery, by sneaking money into the pockets of the unsuspecting to draw attention to the 130,000 customers who will get a share of the bank’s $2.1 million rebate.
Playing on the idea of giving money back, the bank has released a new campaign featuring Flava hosts Sela Alo and Pua Magasiva ‘put-pocketing’, the opposite of pick-pocketing.
Money was put into the pockets, bags, jackets and hoods of unsuspecting people in Auckland’s CBD.
General manager of marketing and online Grant Jennings says it wanted Kiwis to discover that the bank is changing banking for good.
“We’re the only bank in New Zealand to share our profits with its customers – we genuinely put the customer and their needs at the very heart of everything we do,” he says. “We wanted to show all New Zealanders what it feels like to get money from a bank in the form of a rebate, acknowledging the depth of their banking relationship with no strings attached.”
According to its 2016 Disclosure Statement and Annual Report the rebates have increased 17 percent on last year to $2.1 million. It’s more than double the first rebate that was paid in 2013.
The number of customers has also increased over 15,000 in the last 12 months to 147,000. Of those, 75 percent of eligible customers will receive a rebate.
Most rebates are between $10 and $600, with the average proportional rebate being $33.80, an increase form the last, which was $29.20. Customers were informed about their rebate through internet banking, email or post last week.
Corporate anthropologist Michael Henderson says the ‘put-pocketing’ spot is an example of how The Co-operative Bank is different, a theme that continues on from previous campaigns.
Last year a series of spots, also by Y&R, saw the bank use wild animals to say ‘don’t be surprised when your bank acts like a bank’. It wanted to show its act of giving back profit sets it apart from other banks.
