In three short years, the Sharma family have become part of New Zealand advertising folklore – and New Zealand’s biggest bank needed them as it kept innovating to fight off tough competition.
In the cut-throat world of banking, customers are quick to shop around and brand metrics can rise and fall almost as quickly as interest rates.
To stand out from the pack, in 2021 ANZ launched a new brand platform – ‘We Do How’ – to go further than the broad philosophies offered by other banks, empowering Kiwis with the practical tools and knowhow to improve their financial situation.
“To put this promise in the context of everyday Kiwi life, and bring consistency to ANZ’s output, we created the Sharma family,” ANZ’s marketing team says.
“Through the Sharmas we could tell product stories – such as Good Energy, offering home loans for green upgrades – with emotion that has helped ANZ continue to lead the market.”
After 18 months of ‘We Do How’, brand attribution scores had risen, along with steady improvement in overall consideration.
But going into 2023, problems were emerging. In the six months prior to May 2023, ANZ had lost its leading position for ‘own customer consideration’.
The bank had also suffered the sector’s biggest drop in net promoter score between March 2022 and March 2023.
After a relatively strong 2022, non-customer consideration – a key indicator for commercial future performance – was stagnating.
Most alarmingly, ANZ was seeing a fall in its leading share in home loans and business banking – two vital revenue sources for any bank.
“In ‘We Do How’, we knew we had a platform that connected with Kiwis and could lead the sector. But we hadn’t done enough to execute this consistently across key profit drivers to deliver long-term brand health and short-term commercial gains,” the ANZ marketing team says.
In only three short years, the Sharmas have become ANZ’s most recognisable assets, outside of its logo. The family is outperforming brand colours and ‘New Zealand cricket’ (despite a 25-year partnership) on fame and uniqueness.
And in a recent television show discussing the most memorable Kiwi advertising characters ever, the Sharmas were listed alongside four icons from the past.
“With politicians focused on an election, reliable media outlets disappearing and big businesses prioritising short-term success, New Zealand lacked leadership. As the biggest bank, ANZ had a responsibility to step up, fill this leadership vacuum and safeguard the financial wellbeing
of customers,” ANZ says.
ANZ filled a service void in the mortgage market with 1000 dedicated Home Loans Coaches, and created the ‘How Two’ programme to give New Zealand businesses the knowhow to make it past year two.
It continued its Good Energy initiative to help Kiwis make green upgrades to their homes, spoke up on the issue of scams and fraud, and increased its output around partnerships with the Cancer Society and NZ Cricket.
This leadership has been recognised in the industry, with Global CMO Astrud Burgess being named Marketer of the Year at the NZ Effies.
It has also been reflected in ANZ’s ability to reverse declining market share in key areas of the bank and defend its leading position.
ANZ’s reputation ended 2023 above the industry average across multiple quarters for the first time since 2018.
It also saw a rise in non-customer consideration, coinciding with key periods in-market.
By bringing ‘We Do How’ across departments and closer to key profit drivers, ANZ also affected short-term business outcomes.
Its Home Loans Check-In initiative put the brakes on homeowners switching out of ANZ and increased those switching in, a reversal that saw it capture over $1 billion in incremental lending value.
“To achieve this, we applied disciplined consistency and market-leading innovation in equal measure, applying the power of ‘We Do How’ across the business.
“This approach has allowed us to lead the industry, protect our market position and safeguard New Zealand’s financial wellbeing.”
Judges’ comments
Brand of the Year was judged by marketing guru Mark Ritson. He said:
“Congratulations to ANZ on a well-deserved victory for fundamentally fantastic work. I absolutely love this work. It’s strategically smart and shows other brands in NZ and elsewhere how to get targeting and long/short execution right.
“ANZ produced a combination of quality long-term brand building, as well as short-term products, activations and promotion that we very rarely see anywhere – and it’s great to see New Zealand continues to punch well above its domestic weight in terms of the quality of its marketing.
“Many submissions this year were excellent, but ANZ was clearly the best.”
This was first published in the 2024 September-October NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
