SBS Bank saves first home buyers from endangered status in first national brand campaign via ABEL Aotearoa
New Zealand-owned SBS Bank has reignited its positioning, ‘Bank With Heart’, and its 154-year heritage with a brand campaign highlighting the bank’s commitment to conserving the Kiwi dream of home ownership.
In a category first, the campaign reframes first home buyers as New Zealand’s latest endangered species – crucial to the survival of the good life here in Aotearoa and one all can play a role in helping save and protect.
The work will be launched New Zealand-wide across TV, social, and OOH.
SBS Bank Group Chief Executive Mark McLean says the bank is delighted to champion first home buyers across New Zealand with its first national brand campaign: “The great Kiwi dream of home ownership was the very reason SBS was established in 1869 and, 154 years later, we’re just as passionate about working hard for our purpose of helping New Zealanders find a place to call home.
“It’s exciting to launch a new campaign that brings that purpose to life, supported by our back-to-back Canstar award-winning commitment to first home buyers and market-leading products and services.”
Created in partnership with ABEL Aotearoa, Scoundrel, and Match Artists, the work also sees the introduction of SBS Bank’s Kiwi Dream Conservationists—the team dedicated to conserving the dream of home ownership.
Says Abel Aotearoa’s Creative Co-founder Simon Fowler: “We’ve had an incredible time bringing this work to life alongside the SBS Bank team and our partners. As someone who’s just settled into their first home, I know there’s never been a more important time to show first home buyers across New Zealand that we understand the challenges they face, and there’s never been a more important initiative from a Kiwi-owned bank to help support their home-buying journey.”
Says Scoundrel Director Jamie Lawrence: “The opportunity to help build something for an iconic Southland brand has been an amazing process. Alongside that, the opportunity to reshape the way New Zealand thinks about first home buyers on a national stage has been epic.”
SBS Bank Brand Lead Mandy Oosterbroek says the launch of the new brand campaign is the culmination of a lot of hard work and a focused approach to bringing the bank’s purpose to life in a new and exciting way: “It enables us to tell the SBS story about helping Kiwis find a place to call home, and how it’s still relevant over 154 years later.”
SBS Bank
Mark McLean, Group Chief Executive, SBS Bank
Shane Evans, Chief Transformation Officer, SBS Bank
Mandy Oosterbroek, Brand Lead, SBS Bank
Sharon Moffatt, Marketing Consultant, SBS Bank
Georgina Bond, PR Consultant, SBS Bank
ABEL
Simon Fowler, Creative, Co-Founder
Nicole Jauncey, Creative, Co-Founder
Phillip Robbie, Creative Partner
Jennifer Fowler, Project Director
Kirsty Angus, Client Partner + Head of Operations
Margot Fitzpatrick, Senior Integrated Producer
Yolande Dewey, Senior Integrated Producer
Production
Director. Jamie Lawrence, Scoundrel
Producer. Claire Kelly, Scoundrel
Adrian Shapiro as Executive Producer
Joseph Leary as Production Designer
DOP. John Toon
Editor. Luke Haigh
Post House: Toybox
Stills Photographer. Troy Goodall, Match Artists
Media
Managing Partner, Sue McCrea, OMD Christchurch
Business Director, Emily Hancox, OMD Christchurch
Senior Account Manager, Lauren Cook, OMD Christchurch
14 Comments
The old nature doco trope…
Yeah, but I reckon people will a) notice it, and b) like it.
So does it matter?
Love it, not over complicated and enjoyable watch! Nice work.
Saw this on telly last night and thought, great. Finally some charm in a kiwi bank ad. I’d actually consider banking with these guys.
A beautiful campaign with a line-up of beautiful people attached to it. Checks out. You can feel the heart thats gone in to it. Well done crew!
Can Creative please stop doing mockumentary-style ads? They’re starting to pile up in the intray and I can’t tell them apart.
These are great. Well done Nic, Simon and Scoundrel.
Chill ‘um’ and ‘agency photocopier,’ this idea lives beyond the trope.
So, refreshingly done and spot on, that it took the naysaying of chill (hardly) and photocopier (rigor mortis trope much?) to even sniff the whiff of a Mokumentary. Insight and execution transcends trope.
6 of these comments are from agency or client. Look beyond the idea and the nice word play and what is this ad actually saying? Nothing.
Over 150 year of conserving the kiwi dream?
“Look behind the idea and the nice word play…”
Why? The audience won’t.
Always dangerous to underestimate your audience.
Lol at “look beyond the idea”.
Ideas are what we do.
They’re the thing.
wtf.
Who… who are these commenters?
Hard to get past “In a category first”, which is the most humorous thing about the campaign.
The idea just doesn’t seem to be connected to anything the bank is dong for first home buyers, nor does it have any great insight. Will it appeal to first home buyers or the people who are beginning to think they’ll never be able to buy? Will they enjoy being reminded of the struggle they are in? Who knows.
But when you look on the SBS website they do seem to have a pretty strong set of resources for first home buyers and home loans generally.
So maybe that’s what SBS is banking on, that people will check out their website.