He’s regarded as a great marketer, a great leader and a great guy. And, in difficult times for the finance sector, Ian Moody’s steadying hand and unrelenting focus on the customer helped Westpac shine. PLUS: check out the extended interview.
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.
Whatever the creatives—and creative agencies—can do, so can the clients, because it seems Westpac’s head of marketing Ian Moody has swapped red for blue and joined BNZ.
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.
This year’s Red Socks Day falls nearly 11 years since Kiwi legend Sir Peter Blake was killed by pirates on the Amazon. Today, the Sir Peter Blake Trust continues to honour not only the man himself, but also his leadership, love for the environment, and his dedication to New Zealand youth. And to help raise awareness for this year’s Red Socks Day, Westpac, which is the foundation sponsor for the trust and has supported it since it formed in 2004, and .99 worked with street artist Sparrow ‘Component’ Philips (co-founder of the Cut Collective) to create a one of a kind stencil-art styled image of Sir Peter’s face made from almost 3,000 red, white and black socks.
Who’s it for: Lexus by Saatchi & Saatchi
Why we like it: While Toyota’s marketing is all about New Zealandness, this moody new campaign for its luxury subsidiary Lexus aims to drum home the brand’s proud Japanese heritage—and, more specifically, its focus on craftsmanship. And …
According to the latest MYOB Business Monitor, 80 percent of Kiwis use the internet to research products and services, so it’s slightly surprising—especially for many in this sector who are battling with the seemingly unrelenting march of technology on the world of marketing and communications—that only 32 percent of New Zealand businesses have a company website. But Westpac and MYOB are aiming to change that with an initiative called getonline.co.nz, and it’s likely to be one of the last major campaigns created for the bank by the Clemenger Group before it heads across to DDB.
DDB may have a bit less work on with Wattie’s, but it’s getting geared up for the arrival of Westpac in about three months, and it’s announced a few of the anticipated hires, with three experienced campaigners joining the team: art director Toby Morris, planning director Rupert Price and group account director Cath Bosson.
We called it in late April, and now the official word is out: Westpac New Zealand has appointed DDB Group as its sole creative advertising agency.
The Westpac rescue helicopters have saved thousands of lives in New Zealand. But saving those lives doesn’t come cheap (in fact, it costs around $4 million a year to fund a three-crew 24/7 immediate-response team). And despite the ongoing support of principal sponsor Westpac and other partners, the assistance of the public is also crucial to help keep them flying, so this year’s fundraising campaign by .99 aims to remind Kiwis that every donation is valuable regardless of its size, just like the equipment inside each helicopter.
It’s been a fairly exciting ride on the banking merry-go-round in recent times. ASB is now with Saatchi & Saatchi, BNZ is now with Colenso BBDO and we have it on good authority that DDB has won the Westpac account.
It might not have done as well as many expected at AXIS last night, but NZTA, Clemenger BBDO and The Sweet Shop’s ‘Legend’ well and truly made up for it by nabbing a very hard to win Yellow Pencil in the earned media section at the D&AD awards, the only New Zealand work to receive the nod this year. Legend also made it In-Book in the Writing for Advertising category.
Bathed in the green hue of ’70s inspired laser body scanners and violated by the sight of Leigh Hart’s velour one piece, 750-ish adfolk ventured down to the Viaduct Events Centre last night to watch Colenso BBDO’s Doggelganger campaign for Pedigree repeat Yellow Chocolate’s performance last year by taking the Grand, Titanium and Interactive AXIS. But, as is usually the case, the awards weren’t without some controversy.
All the talk about Westpac at the moment is centred on which agency/agencies it decides to work with. But it might not need too much help with the PR, because Westpac NZ’s media relations team walked away with the Gold Award for Campaign of the Year at the 2011 Asia-Pacific PR Awards for the ‘Richie McCaw Chopper Challenge’.
Sponsors Wetspac attracted entries to the NZ Dairy Industry Awards with a newspaper ad appealing to the innate sense of style dairy farmers are renowned for. And the creative culprits behind the ad, .99 have been rewarded for their efforts by taking out NAB’s Decemeber Newspaper Ad of the Month award.
It’s been around one year since Andrew Holt joined Clemenger BBDO in Wellington as managing director. And quite a year it’s been, with the agency winning the New Zealand Post account, an AXIS Gold for its creative Radio NZ radios and launching new campaigns for Dulux, Mitsubishi and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Here’s what caught his eye in 2011.
Much like DraftFCB and The National Bank, the industry has been waiting patiently to see what Colenso and Westpac would come up with after the account shifted from Saatchi & Saatchi last year. It’s already created the Impulse Saver app and a home loan spot and, while the new animated ad explaining the financial perils of the modern world that launched last night isn’t being seen as the big reveal, it is the first time the bank’s new tagline ‘help is what we do’ has been seen in the wild.
Who’s it for: Westpac by Colenso BBDO and Assembly
Why we like it: Aside from the quirky Impulse Saver app and a spot about how easy it is to buy a house, Colenso and Westpac seem to have been pretty quiet since they shacked up last year …
Westpac hasn’t been doing too shabby as of late. Last week it announced the New Zealand business has once again outperformed its Australian parent with a 41 percent boost in earnings. And perhaps proving that profitability doesn’t have to come at the expense of sustainability, Westpac also cleaned up at last night’s 2011 NZI National Sustainable Business Network. Westpac was named Sustainable Business of the Year and also took home the People’s Choice and the Trailblazer Large and Corporate Business awards.
Who’s it for: Westpac by .99 and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: There’s no doubt dressing babies up in funny costumes and using them as props is both cute and hilarious (even when they’re dressed up as dictators, it seems). Westpac has done …
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.
Ah, Ads@6. Welcome back. We’ve missed you. In this edition, unlike ANZ, Westpac thinks life can be perfect; Mitsubishi lets one rip; State continues the stop-motion approach and offers car protection instead of car replacement; Specsavers attempts to save the short sighted from humiliation; Big Save keeps yelling; Stihl’s dark humour makes a welcome return, as does the Spray and Walk Away guy; Hyundai launches a new model, while Ford harnesses the design strengths of the All Blacks for its AB35 project; MasterCard taps into its World Cup sponsorship by revisiting a classic match; and Infratil goes large with the big ‘Z’ launch campaign while BP fights back with a fairly hard to swallow petrol love fest.
DDB NZ turns the tables to try and up the donations for the Coastguard’s MayDay appeal; Colenso releases its first TVC for Westpac and keeps fighting the good fight for Amnesty International; the eyes have it in Saatchi & Saatchi’s latest NZ Army campaign; professional meets amateur in Publicis Mojo’s print ad for Panasonic’s new Lumix camera; TAB and Sugar follow up with another bad call; and a great new Cadbury Glass and Half Full production out of South Africa.
…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.
Westpac and Colenso have been working on the Impulse Saver iPhone app for a while now and after successfully battling through the numerous technical and security issues, launched it around the same time as the earthquake with a few full page ads in the Sunday papers. Not surprisingly, the campaign was temporarily put on ice, but the cutesy banking gimmick/impressive technological innovation that, as the name implies, allows users to add some dosh to their savings account at the push a button, has gone live once again.
They took out the 50 cent classic category at the Art of the Envelope awards recently, and now the AUT University pair of Christabel Spong and Erin Gulyas have taken out the 2010 Student Marketer of the Year Award with their campaign for the annual launch of Westpac’s tertiary package ‘Westie Pac’.
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.
There’s been plenty of pitchy business of late and the most recent news is that Saatchi & Saatchi has won the Sanitarium account and .99 has retained the New World business.
To celebrate the weekly arrival of Ads@6, Vincent Heeringa, esteemed publisher and gadabout, has penned a song: “Ads@6/Ads@6/Oh how we love you Ads@6/Studies have shown/And experts agree/that a surprising number of viewers seem to like them more than the actual news/”. Nice isn’t it. Best use of fingers in an ad this week goes to Webjet. And Westpac features on the list of big ad spenders, which is a good enough excuse to link to this rather boganic financial promotion.
Thanks Handjob! You’re the perfect stocking stuffer! Or, for a slightly less risqué gift, how about a marketing action figure.
Banana smoothie spoofery pokes fun at condescending Westpac animation.
Bodacious boogie-boarding sensation Vincent Heeringa: the early years.
What exactly is the …