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The Mentalist returns to talk up ANZ’s new twosome

The trusty Huntaway took the departure of the National Bank brand in his stride, and last night saw the launch of the first brand campaign for the new ANZ since the big announcement was made a few weeks back, with a Kiwi-specific cameo from Aussie actor Simon Baker back in character as The Mentalist’s Patrick Jane. And while we’re impressed with his use of two tea bags, a classic trick used by tea-nerds who like a stronger brew without the ‘nyertch’ factor of tannins, we fear our fictional friend may be stretching the truth a little.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfIA9GFUlxUThe TVC, which is part of an integrated campaign supported by billboards, national press advertising, in-branch material and a website created by TBWA’s Digital Arts Network, aims to show that two banks combined are greater than the sum of their parts (“an even greater bank, the best of both. More branches, more staff… more”). Technically, you could say there are indeed more staff and branches for ANZ customers as the National Bank network is being rebranded in blue at an estimated cost of $100 million and the bank plans to have a wider spread across the nation, but there will actually be fewer branches in the network. And while ANZ has been at pains to point out no frontline staff would be losing their jobs, ‘backline’ staff are obviously in a different category and, as you’d expect with any merger, there has already been some streamlining at head office, with the company announcing a restructure last year that affected 15 regional management roles and 30 back-office support jobs.

As it says on the FAQs: 

Your local National Bank branch will be refreshed and you will continue to be served as you are now. Where two branches will now be right next to each other, over time we may relocate one branch to another area to further increase our nationwide coverage. Over the next two years we’ll be going from about 75% branch coverage of where New Zealanders live to almost 90%. At the moment we have about 300 branches nationwide and over the next three years as we move resources around we’ll end up with about 280 branches, still the most of any bank. This will see us investing $100 million to ensure we have 50 new, and many more renovated branches for customers in current and new communities.

“This campaign heralds the start of the new ANZ as we continue our journey to build a better bank for New Zealanders,” says Mike Cunnington, ANZ head of marketing. “Since the Patrick Jane campaign launched in August 2011 it has successfully helped to reposition and boost consideration of the ANZ brand. The brand change is now a great opportunity to continue to use the Patrick Jane character to deliver a message specifically around the new ANZ and the power of two brands coming together.” 

In an interview for the soon-to-be released edition of NZ Marketing magazine, Cunnington said there’s plenty of detail in advertising
metrics, but there are three basic measures: are they recognising it as ANZ?  Is it
memorable? And are they remembering the right things? 

“The [Patrick Jane]
campaign achieves on all those scales so it’s definitely doing the job for the
ANZ brand,” he said. “We’re in 32 markets across Asia Pacific so you need to have a degree
of consistency if you want to show that, of all the High St banks, we’re the
best place to connect New Zealand to those markets. It’s making the local
connection but also realising the country’s future is on the world stage and
banks can help New Zealand get there.”

David Walden, WhybinTBWA chief executive says, “as an agency we’ve had a rich history of working in the financial services sector, but this is probably the most exciting project we’ve ever been involved with. We’ve always had a good understanding of the New Zealand psyche and how they feel about banks and are thrilled to apply that to this campaign. Our role was to ensure that the positives from both brands were presented and that the customers from both brands felt a sense of benefit from it.”

This campaign launches around the same time as the next phase of ANZ’s global campaign, which again has Mr Jane helping show “customers how we can help make it easier to get ahead in life”. 

“The first campaign helped us build our profile in our key markets through Asia Pacific scoring in the top ten percent of all ads tracked for recognition and branding,” ANZ’s Joyce Phillips said in a release. “Patrick Jane personifies ANZ’s brand personality and helps us show how we will use insights and practical solutions to help our customers progress.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW4U99vKxh4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87k2szkQSzI

‘Power of Two’ TVC Credits

Executive Creative: Andy Blood

Director: David Deneen, Film Graphics (Melbourne)

Producer: Margot Ger (WHYBINTBWA Melbourne)

Writer: Michael Syme

Creative Group Heads: Chris Childerhouse, Carl Lough

Digital CD: Ross Howard

Group Head: Jodi Willocks

Senior Account Director: Frith Morrissey

Senior Account Manager: Victoria Meo

ANZ – Client Credits

Head of Marketing: Mike Cunnington

Head of Retail Marketing: Matt Pickering

Senior Marketing Manager: Erin Dudding

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