Westpac’s annual Westie Pac campaign has been pimped out like a matte black 1979 Holden Kingswood thanks to a handful of student marketers who attacked the bank’s student campaign like a Bull Terrier on a Sunnyvale Postie’s gastrocnemius. And now, five creative pairings have been chosen by New Zealand Post as finalists in its Student Marketer of the Year Award.
The annual competition aims to encourage marketing nous and creativity in tertiary students and rewards the winner/s with the opportunity to show off their brilliance to room full of potential employers.
In previous years the campaign has pulled all the classic Westie symbols out: mullets, the AC/DC font and plenty of black have been used as a fun way to convince students to sign up for the Student/Westie Pac tertiary bank account.
By the look of their campaign taglines (‘Better choice than your last resort’ or ‘Outrageously good fortune’) we can expect the richness of the west to keep humouring students in O-week 2011.
Westpac’s Grant Andrews says the campaign is “a little more off-centre” than the bank’s usual marketing style and gives something less banky and more engaging to young Kiwis.
“We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to involve students in the process and wanted to call on the fresh, creative thinking of student marketers to make this a campaign like no other and we were thrilled with the quality of the work.”
Fiona Woolley from New Zealand Post’s targeted communications says she is always “blown away by the talent of our young marketers”.
“We’re excited that one student team may have the chance to see their work produced and put into market—a fantastic thing to have in their portfolio—and hope it will make a real difference to the success of the 2011 Westie Pac campaign.”
The 2010 New Zealand Student Marketer of the Year finalists are:
- Joe Stuart & Lydia Moore, AUT, for Student Rock Star
- Erin Gulyas & Christabel Spong, AUT, for Better choice than your last resort
- Lilly Beech, University of Auckland, for Keeping life simple for 3 more years
- Sinead King & Shannon Bell, Massey, for Outrageously good fortune
- Frances Cooke & Wicky Tafau, AUT, for Make the most of what you’ve got
The winning campaign will be announced on 8 December 2010 at the Student Marketer of the Year Showcase Event.
