Westpac’s Martine Jager heads back to Oz, Colenso shares the account management love, CAANZ announces four new board members, indies band together to create new agency forum, Orangebox makes a big Wellington hire, Fairfax goes Peat mining and Alexander Communications goes global.
As the centrepiece of Westpac’s new ‘Start Asking’ campaign shows, New Zealanders can talk about almost everything these days, whether it be politics, religion, war, sex, existential issues and, of course, Rugby World Cup wins. But, as Westpac’s general manager of marketing and customer experience Martine Jager says, we’re still not comfortable talking about money. So can the bank actually change that?
It’s a very competitive home loan market out there at the moment, but Westpac is hoping it can put a bit more of a gap between itself and the rest of the field with what it’s calling a New Zealand-first for homebuyers, a comprehensive online tool called www.homeclub.co.nz that enables users to collect, compare and store properties they are interested in by importing TradeMe watchlists and aims to smooth the often-frustrating purchase process by providing information like QV valuations, comparative sales in the area, multiple views of the location with Google maps, mortgage calculators and easy contact with Westpac loan specialists.
After BNZ’s parent bank NAB recently shoulder-tapped Clemenger Group and asked Colenso BBDO to hop into bed with BNZ, Westpac was pushed out onto the floor and swiftly put its account up for pitch. At present, the Clemenger-owned .99, which recently had to show around 15 staff the door after the loss of Air New Zealand and Vodafone to DraftFCB, is Westpac’s retail agency but this new regional alignment and other agency changes for BNZ means it might be pretty tough to keep it that way.
Ahhh, babies. So cute, so cuddly, so much potential, yet so financially illiterate. To help remedy that—but mainly to celebrate 150 years in New Zealand—Westpac, with the help of .99 and Robber’s Dog, has launched a new campaign called Gen W that’s offering 150 small Kiwi humans ongoing financial support and advice until they turn 18.
…as the Marketing Association ramps up its, er, marketing with a new human in a newly created role; Martine Jager returns from Australia to join Westpac New Zealand’s marketing team; Radio New Zealand announces its new board; TrinityP3 downsizes and St John Craner moves to the country; Syro Communications announces a staffing coup; International Rescue adds a generous photographer to its ranks; and a Kiwi expat gets a plum Asia Pacific posting with Interpublic’s Mediabrands.