ANZ x The Australian

How “being in the news” helped ANZ change brand perceptions

In 2016, the familiar blue ANZ logo began to disappear from the Asian market. The move followed ANZ’s sale of its retail bank assets in the region and by 2019, only the institutional bank brand remained.

At the time, Trisca Scott-Branagan was the Head of Personalisation, Group Marketing at ANZ Bank. Speaking at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum, she said: “The institutional bank branding in Asia was black, white, grey and platinum. There was no more blue because blue was the retail colour. So, there was a perception that ANZ had left Asia.”

ANZ needed to change this perception with a target audience of CEOs and CFOs.

Scott-Branagan said: “We had mapped out the customer journeys of CEOs and CFOs and we knew exactly their day to day lives, how they consumed different media. So how do we get a message to these people in a meaningful contextual way?”

The ANZ team created a campaign that targeted this audience as they travelled, with campaign assets reaching them through out-of-home and digital media in airports as well as in the Qantas lounge.

At the heart of the campaign was a partnership with Australia’s premiere business masthead, The Australian. ANZ worked with the title to create a cover wrap that celebrated the ANZ brand, paired with thought leadership from ANZ’s CEO and top economist sharing key messages from the business.

The campaign culminated at a conference attended by hundreds of the bank’s top global customers. When conference attendees woke on the first morning, outside their door was The Australian with the bold blue cover wrap.

When you opened your door, you not only had your own beautifully wrapped newspaper, but looking down the hallway, it was just blue that you saw. It lifted this sense of validity of what we were doing and what we were talking about because it was in the news.

Trisca Scott-Branagan

Former Head of Personalisation, Group Marketing, ANZ

The campaign was a major success for ANZ and Scott-Branagan notes, “The look on their faces is probably all the ROI needed on that particular day.

“The feedback was astronomical. We reached the greatest brand consideration rates in the entire history of measuring brand consideration. So it was a real success from the marketing perspective.”

The ANZ leadership team was also impressed with the approach. “We had our internal leadership meeting a month later. The CEO took a copy of the paper and waived it around to say, ‘See how great we are. We’ve overcome these challenges, because of this’.

“I didn’t have to justify that spend to anyone.”