TSB managed to get itself on TV remarkably quickly after the announcement of the National Bank/ANZ fusion with a message aimed directly at the customers who see the rebrand as an opportunity to switch. And, as expected, the rest of the banks were close behind with their own various overtures.
A few big switcheroos in Wellington, with Assignment Group, Saatchi & Saatchi and Clemenger BBDO ringing the changes, Naked lures one of its own back home, Rachel Broadmore swaps banks for booze, Ben Rose swaps bureaucracy for banks, the Orange Group ups its events arsenal, and Random House announces a new publicist.
With a customer base of over four million paying subscribers and over 15 million active users, it’s fair to say Spotify’s rise has been nothing short of gigantic. And, as it seeks new ways of monetising its service, it has set it sights on big brands that are equally keen to tap into the service to create unique marketing opportunities. The likes of McDonald’s and Reebok are already on board with their recommended playlists, and it’s even making tracks in political circles, with the creation of the official 2012 Obama campaign playlist. It recently gained some traction locally, too, with ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi teaming up to create what it says is a “New Zealand media-first” branded Facebook app that integrated with the Spotify platform and industry commentators to create an ‘Olympic Moods’ soundtrack to the Olympics.
It seemed like such a good idea: Peanuts vs Cashews. Grab a handful, pelt your mates and discover once and for all who’s the real ‘King of the Nuts’. Then things went wrong. A rogue peanut bounced off a lamp-post, caught a cycle courier and tossed him in front of a bus. Luckily the bus swerved, no one was hurt and they only took out a small building. Rogue accident, you wouldn’t read about it (mostly because it didn’t happen). But it could. And the question on the table after a recent Australian Standards Board decision that has put the onus on brands to manage their Facebook pages is where does the buck stop when social goes awry?
ASB has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative banks, as evidenced by its inclusion on the Financial Brand’s list of ten brands to watch, the Top 35 Banks on Facebook and Top 35 Banks on Twitter. It was the first to launch internet banking in New Zealand in 1997, its virtual ‘Facebranch’ was an award-winning world-first, and its latest development has followed that trajectory by letting users pay Facebook friends through its updated mobile app. So is it digital gimmickry? Or is ASB adhering to its slogan and creating the future? We chat with general manager, brand experience and digital channels Anna Curzon.
Sorted’s shrinkage, RadioLive’s fly on the wall approach, ASB’s Facebook in real life tomfoolery and TV3’s Olympics promo take the TVC title this week.
Given Facebook’s pervasiveness, it’s not entirely surprising to learn the ‘Facebook in real life theme’ is already pretty fertile comedic territory. And ASB’s new agency Saatchi & Saatchi, with Thick as Thieves on production duties, has tapped into that idea for its first major piece of work for the bank, an online-only campaign to promote the new Facebook payments platform that shows what such a transaction might look like ‘IRL’.
Bankland is never short on action and rumours of National Bank’s shaky future look set to be fuelled by the latest Nielsen AIS figures on advertising spend by New Zealand banks. The ANZ NZ-owned brand spent the second lowest amount on advertising in the first half of this year compared to the other five banks, its $3.5 million paling in comparison to ANZ NZ’s ANZ brand, which clocked up the largest bill of all the banks at $15.3 million.
Fresh from being named as New Zealand’s best online bank by Canstar, and following on from the world’s first virtual Facebook branch in late 2010, ASB has taken the next logical step, with users soon able to make payments directly to their Facebook friends.
With customers embracing the internet and social media in ever-increasing numbers (the Banking Ombudsman has just released a new guide for online banking), Canstar has embarked on its first review of the New Zealand online banking market and ASB, a bank renowned for its digital chops and social focus, has been named the best of the lot.
Ah the past, it’s another country. To celebrate 21 years of the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards—and to reference the fact there are just 21 days to get your entries into this year’s awards—we’ll be trawling through the archive to bring you 21 winners from the past. First up, the Supreme Winner from 1996, ASB’s Robert the Robot. Has it stood the test of time? You be the judge.
The Webby Awards aim to honour general internet awesomeness, and fighting it out for gongs with big global beasts like Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are local hopes Shift for Tourism New Zealand, Resn for Toyota’s Camry Effect, Xero and DDB/Rapp Tribal for McDonald’s. And they need your votes.
The big news from last week was that ASB decided to move from Droga5 to Saatchi & Saatchi, bringing an end to ongoing speculation that relationship was on the ropes. And there’s a bit more reshuffling to announce, with The Research Agency winning ASB’s advertising and brand tracking research programme in a non-competitive pitch from the incumbent Colmar Brunton.
When it rains it pours and it’s certainly pouring in bankland at the moment because one of the most talked about agency bank relationships in the country has officially come to an end after ASB appointed Saatchi & Saatchi, effective 1 July 2012.
Who’s it for: Good Books by String Theory and Buck
Why we like it: It’s a brilliant, extremely well written tribute to the late great Hunter S. Thompson, it’s for a great cause, and the animation is stupendous.
Who’s it for: Dulux …
There’s been no shortage of action in bankland recently, with agency shifts galore and fairly sizeable profits being announced by the big boys that could potentially lead to some fairly enthralling market-share battles this year. And one of the big ones is set to be between ASB and ANZ.
Proudly Kiwi-owned indie agency Federation kicked off in 2008 and it pumped out a lot of work this year, with good campaigns for the likes of Warehouse Stationery, Cavalier Bremworth, Fisher & Paykel Finance and The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. DDB NZ’s ex-managing director Sharon Henderson opines on 2011.
Who’s it for: ASB by Droga5 and The Sweet Shop
Why we like it: It’s a good way to explain why ASB is better than its competitors. It’s got some added gravitas with the voice talent of Dame Judi Dench. And it’s a nice …
As the old phrase says, you go into a bank looking for your girlfriend and end up leaving with her mother. And while a likable bank may seem like the quintessential oxymoron, ASB is typically near the top of the customer satisfaction charts in comparison to the other big competitors. Now, following on from the first and fairly controversial incarnation of the big Creating Futures rebrand, it has taken a step in a slightly different direction with the launch its new ‘Experience ASB’ campaign over the weekend.
ASB has announced the addition of Roger Beaumont to its executive leadership team in the newly-created role of executive general manager, marketing and online.
…as the industry says goodbye to Brian Milnes, MediaWorks finds its PR man, ASB’s Deborah Simpson creates a new future, Radio New Zealand finds a voice of the Pacific, and Terabyte Interactive helps out the Aussies.
2011 Corporate Reputation Index
Reputation is everything, someone may have once said. And Air New Zealand has the best one, according to the second annual New Zealand Corporate Reputation Index.
…as Sweet Shop director Sam Holst tastes gold at Cannes, Alt Group continues to win things, shifting PRs, MediaWorks signs up a new Breeze host, ASB’s tech guy is acknowledged for customer service innovations and 2degrees adds a couple of newbies.
How personal is too personal? ASB know all about that, after all its Creating Futures campaign has been centred on providing that personal touch. But it all got a little too personal recently when its In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) commercial was unveiled to the viewing public, prompting a raft of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for being too simplistic and exploiting the vulnerable, among other reasons.
The ASA’s annual report for 2010 is out and the always interesting top ten most complained about ads of the year has been released, with the Erotica Expo billboard, ASB’s IVF ad and a Durex condoms outdoor campaign taking the medals.
One of the primary jobs of a marketing team should be to govern the brand; to take care of it, make it thrive and stop it from getting ripped to shreds in the media.
With a combination of effective, unashamedly jingoistic advertising, a solid product offering and consistently high rates of customer satisfaction, Kiwibank has performed the role of challenger brand brilliantly and given the big boys plenty of grief since it was set up in 2002. Hell, ASB even took aim at it last year in the misguided ‘We’re a Kiwi bank’ campaign and Sam Neill signed on to be the bank’s mascot, so it must be doing something right. Sadhana Raman, Kiwibank’s general manager of brand and marketing communications—and a finalist in last year’s Marketer of the Year awards—goes back in time.
It was all about ‘reverse integration’ for bcg2 this year, after it merged with Grey Global Group. And with some solid work for Lion and Audi, as well as the recent acquisition of the Esquires account, the new relationship seems to be going fairly swimmingly so far. Director of strategy and planning Abe Dew (who’s written a great piece on agency/client relationships in the latest NZ Marketing magazine, by the way) pipes up on 2010.
In the just released January/February edition of NZ Marketing magazine, we looked back on the year’s biggest events/campaigns/achievements/flops/stoushes and compiled an obligatory—and extremely definitive—end of year list. But we figured it would pay to ask a few more industry high-rollers for their thoughts on the year in marketing. We’ll be posting their responses to our questionnaire over the next week. But to get the ball rolling, watch the opinions fly as Courtney Lambert offers her take on 2010’s goods, bads and uglies.
Not everything about ASB and Droga5’s ‘Creating Futures’ campaign found favour. But the posters/press ads created by three up and coming Kiwi designers were very well-received. And the judges of the NAB Newspaper Ad of the Month have continued that trend, choosing Lauren Marriot’s effort as the winner of the November round.