| Winner | Kiwibank |
| Marketing initiative | Is it Really Real? This is Flipping the Script on Fraud and Scams |
| Marketing partners | Special, FCB6 |
| Finalists | Animates NZ Holdings, ASB Bank, Auto Trader NZ, CUPRA, Fonterra Brands Oceania, Invivo Wines, Popeyes Louisiana Chicken NZ, Sky NZ, Tegel Foods, Zuru Group – Rhodes Pet Science |
| Judges’ comments | “Kiwibank is known for its innovation, and this entry continues the trend of thinking differently. The judges loved the customer-centric approach and the intent to open the tool up to market as a whole. You demonstrated very clear links between the business objectives and your marketing communications strategy, all driven by thoughtful insights. This is a truly marketing-led initiative, and in a competitive category with low budgets, the results were exceptional.” |
Scam spotting in real life
Kiwibank set an ambitious target: to reduce the amount its customers were losing to scams by 30%.
Even savvy customers can get caught out by financial rackets, but no-one thinks it’ll happen to them. Until it does.
Practising what to do in the most likely situations was the key to Kiwibank’s ‘Is it really real?” initiative.
Kiwibank grounded its approach in behavioural science, recognising that preventing scams requires more than education. Interrupting decision-making moments with new, simple behaviours is key.
From this insight came its strategic communications idea: “Is it really real?” The question aims to trigger critical thinking and interrupt impulsive action.
It became the foundation of the ScamSpotter series, Kiwibank’s interactive fraud prevention platform.
Practical tools for prevention
The idea transformed customer communications from passive alerts to active engagements, using gamification, real-life scam examples and scenario-based learning to instil questioning behaviour at scale.
Research showed being scammed carries stigma, and a huge emotional toll – but customers feel unprepared and don’t believe it will happen to them.
High-trust scenarios (such as getting a call from “Kiwibank”) make scams especially effective, and scammers use urgency and emotion to bypass rational thinking, forcing quick reactions.
Kiwibank built content around the six scam types that accounted for most losses: impersonation, phishing, investment, romance, buy/sell and business scams. This gave customers practical tools for prevention.
The ScamSpotter series required robust cross-functional collaboration across Kiwibank. It delivered exceptional results in just six weeks.
Targets were smashed. The Scamspotter Challenge had 408,762 challenge entries during the campaign period, 718% above expectation.
Who won, who they were up against and what the judges had to say.
We bring you all the details for every category in the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards 2025.
Kiwibank saw huge improvement in the brand perception “online banking is secure” – up 10 points with Kiwibank customers (400% above target) and up three points at total market level (50% above target) from October 2024 to January 2025.
The bank also increased customers’ satisfaction with service by five points over that period, exceeding its target
by 150%.
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 84, Sept-Nov 2025. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
Essential marketing intelligence. Don’t miss it.
