In Australia, the banking Royal Commission was established in late December 2017, after years of public pressure from whistleblowers, consumer groups and the opposition government. Over the past year, Australians have heard evidence of appalling behaviour by Australia’s major banks and financial planners from the past decade, including alleged bribery, irresponsible lending and inflated salaries for senior bankers. Salacious headlines have been a daily occurrence. This commission coupled with the much-hyped global trust crisis make banks and bankers the most unpopular industry in Australia.

Each life moment was built around deep customer insights, which helped us reappraise and alter the way we respond to people in challenging financial moments.

These were more than just ad campaigns.

Working with research partners, we mapped the experience end-to-end, adjusting banker scripts, the language of phone banking, customer letters, even product names. Content was developed to unpack the complex financial life moments. These were made available to all Australians – regardless of their bank.

Each Life moment was launched with an emotional film, championing the power of help.

Help. It’s what Australian’s do.

A brand positioning film celebrated how Australians (and Westpac) have always helped each other.

Help through the loss of a loved one.

We told the life story of a unique community gesture that helps someone through their grief.

Help through separation.

The tale of a small boy stepping up to help his separating parents.

We formed a cross functional team across media, advertising, research and analytics and reviewed 10 years of historical data in a six-week sprint to understand what drives perception and consideration of the brand.

What we found was that while people may not like their bank, they were even less keen on switching - inertia, costs and the challenges of everyday life get in the way of changing banks.

That said, there were significant life moments when customers do consider switching or staying with their current bank. The birth of a child, the death of a parent, love & marriage, heartbreak & divorce. Significantly, in these moments people don’t come to us for products, they come to us for an outcome.

At the heart of these moments is vulnerability. This insight made us revaluate our strategy.

To separate ourselves from other banks, our strategy was to focus on key financial moments which other brands have been traditionally too afraid to confront; starting with losing a loved one and going through a divorce – two of life’s most complex financial moments. Not only did this create a new conversation in the market, it broke category conventions and invited people to rethink banking.

Positive brand sentiment

Westpac shifted brand personality +5% on caring, +3% on warm, +2% on friendly.

As a result, we saw strong brand affinity uplifts to Westpac with total market increasing +4%pts, and by +7%pts among those that said they remember seeing the campaign.

Increased consideration

41% more likely to consider Westpac as a result of having seen the Help TVC

47% more positive to Westpac after seeing the ‘Frank’ loss of a loved one TVC

41% more likely to consider Westpac in the future after seeing the campaign

Positive brand noise

Between March and August 2018 prompted brand noise for the bank increased from 15% to 26%. A significant shift for the bank; while the other three big banks noise in market has have plateaued, Westpac’s has increased, making net sentiment positive for the first time since the Royal Commission. (GalKal Campaign Deep Dive 2018).