Michael Goldthorpe runs his own consultancy called Hunch and, inbetween doing actual work, he has written some wonderful things for StopPress over the past couple of years, the most wonderful being his extremely well-received piece on how “mad people are attracted to advertising, just as advertising is attracted to us”. So here he is writing some more about the year that was.
Westpac has chosen three winning apps in a competition it launched to find ways of making banking processes faster. The Westpac App Challenge crowdsourcing contest pitted 120 entrants from around the country against each other, with seven finalists participating in a Dragon’s Den style showdown a few weeks ago at Westpac’s Auckland HQ.
The Herald on Sunday can stop chasing now it has a new lead, Westpac is on the hunt for a GM of strategy, products and marketing, Cooper Street gets Time on its hands, Devlin is back in the fold for Radio Sport and True bolsters its leadership ranks.
We’re increasingly using online and mobile banking, but it’s not going to make human customer service go away. In fact Westpac’s new banking platform is designed as much to get in touch with real people as it is to do more services for ourselves away from branches.
Westpac has put a few of its besuited bodies on the line and created a giant human red sock in Britomart to show their support for Emirates Team New Zealand. Who says bankers don’t have a heart? And elsewhere in America’s Cup land, a few cheeky Kiwis decided Larry Ellison’s place “needed some decoration,” so they added a few New Zealand flags.
After almost 1,000 votes, the entertaining fish out of water tale that aims to show that Westpac has ways of helping customers into their own house has taken out the StopPress/MediaWorks People’s Choice Award. Micheal Healy, Westpac’s portfolio director — brand and marketing, takes us through the thinking behind it.
Toyota is renowned for creating brave, entertaining and memorable advertising that resonates with New Zealanders. And it continued that trend last year when it introduced the nation to a car-loving cat called Alloroc, the furry star of the ad that took out the 2013 StopPress/MediaWorks TVC of the Year Award.
Chins have been stroked, cases have been put, voices have ben raised and chocolate thins have been consumed. Which can mean only one thing: the winners have been chosen for the StopPress/MediaWorks TVC of the Year.
We Kiwis like to think we’ve got it sorted, living as we do in our little slice of ‘100% Pure’ paradise. But we have plenty of demons and the truth is that New Zealand is “one of the worst-ranking OECD nations in terms of the percentage of the population that works ‘very long hours'”. So Westpac and DDB have dramatised that fact with another entertaining ad as part of its ‘Start Asking’ campaign that shows the pitfalls of owning your own business.
The Great Bank Wars of 2012 made for enthralling marketing viewing and, after the National Bank shuffled off, its competitors smelled blood. Now Roy Morgan has provided some figures on just how many Kiwis shifted banks in the past year and where National Bank customers went.
Monteith’s time traveller, Westpac’s human ATM and Dulux’s DoC hut love FTW.
‘Hand Outs’, the next instalment in DDB’s ‘Start Asking’ campaign for Westpac, puts the spotlight on the ‘sandwiched’ generation. But the ad, which puts a humorous spin on the group’s endless plight to keep their family financially supported and uses the Zorba the Greek track, has managed to rile up a few Greeks who believe the ad is racist.
Ian Moody switched from Westpac to BNZ to take up the head of brand role in early November last year, which made for a fairly difficult acceptance speech when he was named as marketer of the year while between jobs. And he has resigned just a few months in to the new job due to what external relations manager Emily Davies calls “personal reasons”.
Banks are increasingly cottoning onto the importance of the customer experience, and Westpac’s signature store at 79 Queen Street (which opened late last year) is a prime example.
DDB is well-accustomed to showing off the spoils of spending through its work with NZ Lotteries. But it’s showing a different side of excessive consumption in its latest spot for Westpac.
With fewer competitors, a new agency, the departure of some senior staff, a range of marketing initiatives and a new brand campaign, it was a big year for Westpac. Senior brand manager Michael Healy shares his thoughts.
Paul White regularly opines on ad campaigns as a judge for our Campaign Review section in NZ Marketing, just as he does on his students’ work in his role as course leader at AUT Adschool. Here he goes again.
While the research industry as a whole shrinks, The Research Agency continues to grow, with new staff, new clients and a few awards in 2012. Main brains Andrew Lewis, Amber Coulter and Connon Bray speak up.
DNA Design celebrated its 21st back in 2010 and it’s still doing quality work—both on pages and In Real Life—for the likes of Powershop, Icebreaker and the All Blacks. Grenville Main has been there from the start and here’s what he made of last year.
‘Flatties’, the entertaining home loan-related follow-up to Westpac’s ‘Start Asking’ brand campaign by DDB and Prodigy, managed to beat out its big brother in the Jan/Feb instalment of Campaign Review in NZ Marketing magazine after taking second place. And it’s followed that up by winning the November round of the Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award.
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.
And we bow down and give TVC of the Week praise to Westpac’s bickering oldies, Good Books’ bodice ripper, Stickman’s chicken adulation, OPSM’s surf lifesaving tie-in and Big Little City’s visual love letter to Auckland.
We’ve had an oversupply of kids and animals in advertising this year. But, in the follow-up to the launch of Westpac and DDB’s Start Asking campaign, the oldies have taken centre stage in an entertaining fish out of water tale that aims to show the bank has ways of helping customers into their own house.
Westpac’s ode to asking and Barkers’ slow motion All Blacks earn their keep this week.
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?
Following the ANZ-National fusion decision, there has been a seemingly endless stream of bank ads vying for New Zealand’s affection. And while Westpac has dabbled with a cheeky green vs. blue = red number and a bit of sneaky teaser hijacking, it’s kept its biggest pile of gunpowder dry until now, launching a new brand campaign by DDB last night that’s headed by a 90 second TVC imploring New Zealanders to start asking questions about money.
Wendy Rayner’s new reign, Michael Laws drops the mic, DDB makes a deposit, changes at Woman’s Weekly, no comment from Fairfax, Top Gear New Zealand heads across the ditch, Charlie’s finds a new chief, Ideas Shop adds a new general manager, Alt Group pleases ze Germans, Mi9 moves them up the chain, Simon Barnett heads back to TV, Dominic Bowden takes on X Factor, Datamine adds an ‘Owl’ and Bright Sparks beefs up in the south.
GrabOne has come out as the first New Zealand company to integrate with Passbook, a new feature in iOS6 that enables the storage of coupons, loyalty cards, tickets and more on your iPhone. And the mobile wallet fun doesn’t stop there, because Westpac, Telecom and Auckland Transport have cranked up a trial.
Sealord, pretty much all the banks and Cirkus pass go, get $200 this week.
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.