2007 AWARD WINNER
GRAND PRIX
CAMPAIGN - Shattering Convention Within The Mortgage Category
AGENCY - The Campaign Palace
CLIENT - Westpac Home Loans
SPONSORED BY
OBJECTIVES
Westpac tasked The Campaign
Palace with delivering 6.2% more
home loan applications than Spring
2005 - but with a 40% reduction in
budget and a less competitive price
point to communicate in a softer
housing market.
The highly competitive home
loan category creates a glut of
communication that is considered
“same-same”. The net result of
“same-same” is “bland and unmemorable”,
so, inevitably, decisionmaking
usually comes down to the
lowest common denominator -
interest rate.
Westpac had previously enjoyed a
competitive rate in the market (0.7%
discount), so the strategy to follow
the classic path-to-purchase was
sound and successful. But without a
price advantage in the market,
Westpac couldn’t afford to be one
of the bland and unmemorable
advertisers.
Therefore, the communications
needed to break the mould,
but remain relevant, engaging
and motivating for prospective
homebuyers.
CAMPAIGN
Buying a home is a highly emotional
time - full of aspirations, hopes and
fear. The Campaign Palace found one
of the most common fears is
compromising your current lifestyle to
afford hefty loan repayments - a fear
heightened due to the recent rise in
cost of living and uncertainty around
interest rate rises.
Buyers were worried the little
luxuries in life would have to be
sacrificed, even something as small
as a daily coffee. This insight led to
the communications idea: Don’t
sacrifice the little luxuries for your
home loan.
So, The Campaign Palace
identified everyday luxuries homebuyers
wouldn’t want to sacrifice, to
inform the media context strategy
and resulting creative message.
For example, petrol pump
bowsers were used to hold the
message: “Don’t sacrifice a tank of
petrol for your home loan . . . with
Westpac’s 0.7% discount.” Takeaway
coffee cups were created with the
message: “Don’t sacrifice your daily
pick-me-up for your home loan.”
The Campaign Palace convinced
Westpac to deviate from traditional
channels through research that
showed shopping for a property and
home loan is an all-consuming task -
there’s rarely a minute of the day
when buyers aren’t thinking about the
property and everything associated
with it. Therefore, getting a loan isn’t
something that is only “top of mind”
when flicking through a property
paper - the opportunities are more
open and untapped.
Due to the contextual relevance
of each media contact point recency,
rather than repetition, was relied on,
so all activity was scheduled
simultaneously.
Activity was upweighted in the
highly competitive markets of Sydney
and Melbourne where cosmopolitan
lifestyles mean media context is
more potent.
More than 300 petrol pump
bowers, 150,000 coffee cups and
680 Shopalite panels were used to
carry Westpac’s message. Online and
specialist press sections also formed
part of the campaign.
RESULTS
The goal was to achieve a 6.2% yearon-
year uplift in home loan applications
over the nine-week campaign
period. The campaign achieved a
6.4% increase versus the previous
year (0.2% above target).
This result was remarkable given
Spring 2006 was a much softer
property market on the Eastern
Seaboard, which makes up 73% of
Westpac’s lending business. Also,
Westpac had 40% less spend in media
than the previous year and competitive
noise increased 35% in the home loan
market - Westpac’s SOV decreased by
55% and was the only bank in the
category to decrease SOV.
Furthermore, there was no new
product news for 2006 - 0.7% was a
constant message and Westpac had
a less competitive interest rate.
TV was not used in the campaign
(despite TV making up 60% of
Westpac’s 2005 spend). The strategy
and investment levels in direct
marketing were consistent YOY.
By challenging convention within
the category, The Campaign Palace
reduced the cost per “first party
application” by 43%. This delivered
$1.070 million of additional value for
Westpac.
JUDGE’S COMMENTS
“The Westpac entry insights were
unbelievably true! Focus was
completely on the consumer and
challenged convention, in a tough
category. Congratulations to the
agency for convincing Westpac to do
it, and congratulations to Westpac for
a breakthrough campaign.”
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