Body Parts
Category: Customer Acquisiton; Award: GOLD
Category: Sales Generation; Award: GOLD
Category: Sales Promotion; Award: GOLD
Category: Best Overall Creative; Award: CRAFT
Agency: AIM Proximity
Client: Bank of New Zealand
Agency Campaign Credits: Pat Murphy, Ben Chandler, Gabrielle Pritchard, Matthew Pickering, Matt Shirtcliffe, Barry cumming, Jo Tacon, Aaron Goldring, Di Evans, Paul Sanderson
Client Campaign Credits: Jo Green, Anita Campbell, Angela Pringle
Campaign Summary:
The Body Parts Campaign used irreverent, risk-taking creative to sign up students for BNZ’s Campus Pack account.
A non-traditional approach to the media and distribution strategy surrounded students on campus and converted them at the moment of truth – with outstanding results. The campaign achieved 180% of our objectives and over $3.2M in incremental value.
Campaign Objectives:
The objective was to open 6,500 new accounts with a stretch target of 10,000 accounts during the orientation period of February 1 to March 30, 2006
The total budget was $85k, a 10% decrease on the previous year’s, even though the target number of accounts opened last year had now become this year’s target.
Campaign Results:
As a result of the campaign, 18,000 accounts were opened, meaning and achievement of 180% of the target.
The Bank’s share of the tertiary market increased from 11% to 17% in the space of 2 months. This was a massive achievement – a spike of 6% that would often take years to achieve in financial services categories. (An increase in share of just 2% over 12 months is normally considered a resounding success).
This gave a cost per acquisition cost of $3, compared to $10 the previous year. With each customer valued to the Bank at $180 within 10 years, the total value of new customers delivered by the campaign is $3.2m against a marketing spend of approximately $85,000, an ROI 37 times the campaign cost over 10 years.
Strategy:
Competitor banks all employ powerful incentives to entice students to open an account, such as a sign-on bonus of $40 cash. Something unique was needed that would make the BNZ product more compelling. The strategy was, therefore, to appeal to students’ desire for discounts and free stuff to make their frugal lives more enjoyable. A relationship was arranged with a student discount card to integrate the discount card with the ATM bank card that came with Campus Pack. This meant students could get free stuff and discounts all year round – a distinct point of differentiation.
There was insufficient budget for mainstream media so to reach the audience, a range of traditional and non-traditional options were employed in and around the university campuses, surrounding the audience in a very localized way with a bold, integrated campaign.
The challenge of getting students into the bank branch – which is often off-campus - to open the account also had to be overcome. This was done by setting yup mobile bank stands on campus at the height of the campaign so new customers could be signed up on the spot.
To create cut-through for a financial services product, the campaign had to be entertaining, so along with print and direct media, street theatre-style stunts were organised on campus. This ensured great exposure for the campaign and maximized the response from the rest of the campaign activity.
Finally, it was important to ensure that customers who opened the account actually used it rather than just taking advantage of the discount card. Because students are heavy mobile phone users, they were sent ‘chaser’ text messages once they had opened the account. These messages promised the instant gratification of an incentive to get them into a branch to activate their account.
Creative Rationale:
The creative proposition was as simple as “Get a BNZ Campus Pack and avoid the hardship of being a student”. The idea was to show that student life could be a lot less painful with a Campus Pack.
Something engaging and totally irreverent needed to be created to appeal to the target audience, so a fictitious company – Body Parts Direct – was created, offering students cash for their spare body parts. Although it was a parody of life as a poor, desperate student, Body parts Direct was deliberately designed to look like the real deal, with a medical journal style illustration and a list of prices for assorted organs, (although closer inspection reveals the captions are of a rather satirical nature.)
The insert in the orientation bags even included a sealed bag for the recipient to send their body parts back in and a set of helpful instructions! So as not to harm the authenticity of the pack, the Campus Pack message was make to look like a sticker that’s just been slapped on top of the Body Parts advert – in a desperate attempt to save students from this grisly fate. A special overgloss on the BNZ part of the posters added further contrast with the body parts illustration underneath.
Finishing touches were then added, like a URL for www.bodypartsdirect.co.nz (which redirects to the Campus Pack page on the BNZ website.)
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