I saw it happen in the UK and now it has happened in Australia. It starts with a clever TVC and develops into a cult like following. A campaign that is so good it sprouts new opportunities as a result of its popularity – and in Australia that campaign is Barbara The Bank Manager from Bank World by the ANZ Bank. Launched in early 2010 Barbara captured the attention of the Australia public through a series of humorous commercials which challenged perceptions that consumers have of banks and exposes some of the frustrations they experience at ‘other’ banks. The ads generated conversation amongst consumers which presented the ANZ with a series of opportunities to leverage social media as part of the campaign strategy. And by doing so it seems the ANZ bank has been able to tap into a captive online audience extending campaign reach and delivering more value from campaign investment.
ANZs Success With Social Media
Barbara On Facebook
Barbara’s strong persona has translated well in the online space. So much so that on Facebook over 130,000 consumers have already displayed their fondness for the Bank Manager which is a massive WIN for the Australian Bank. The big four banks of Australia are not well liked, however by leveraging consumers interest in Barbara online, the bank has developed a direct relationship with consumers – one which can be effectively utilised well beyond this campaign. This however is also a great example of how the bank has evolved its campaign strategy based on consumer reaction. The Facebook component of the campaign was not part of the initial campaign launch and therefore this is a very creative move by the bank, one which has enabled them to capitalise on offline success in the online space in an interactive way.
Barbara on YouTube
Fairly early on the ANZ realised the value that could be gained from leveraging YouTube as part of the campaign strategy. With consumers actively discussing the commercials the obvious extension was to load these online to enable consumers to view them on-demand, share them and discuss them in the online space and this strategy has obviously paid off. Hundreds of thousands of views have been racked up on the ads extending their reach and life well beyond the scheduled TVCs.
Barbara however is not the only good example of a campaign that evolved online after a successful offline launch. In the UK Aleksandr the Meerkat (from comparethemarket.com) experienced similar success a year earlier through the use of TVC and social media.
Compare The Meerkat.com Campaign Results
The popular meerkat Aleksandr was an instant hit offline. And like the lovable Bank Manager as consumers started to discuss the catchy commercial an opportunity arose to extend Aleksandr’s persona online. Aleksandr was so popular that the commercials received over 1 million views on YouTube, Aleksandr received over 750,000 followers on Facebook and over 20,000 on Twitter. Best of all comparethemarket.com achieved 100% growth in traffic, an 80% increase in quote requests from consumers and a 39% increase in brand awareness – not bad for a quirky meerkat.
Learning from Success
But what does this all mean for marketers? Here are my 3 take aways from these successful campaigns.
Social media doesn’t need to be the main act
Many marketers set out to develop a social media campaign – however the 2 examples above show just how well social media can support a campaign’s objectives without being the core / solo channel for communicating a message.
2. Integrate Integrate Integrate
The above examples demonstrate how much value can be delivered through an integrated online and offline campaign approach. Integration is not about tacking on some online media as part of the campaign but is about identifying how individual channels can contribute to delivering campaign success.
3) Keep pushing the envelope
When you are on a winner, look at new ways to further evolve the campaign online and offline. What both of these campaigns demonstrate is creativity is important at every stage of the campaign process not just during the ideation phase.
© Digital Marketing Lab Blog
Written By: Teresa Sperti
Does this really translate in to more customers for the bank? I “like” Barbara on Facebook but still immensely dislike the ANZ bank (and all the others). This ad should be backfiring for the bank – people should realise that Barbara is actually modelled on a typical bank manager whether they be from ANZ, Commonwealth or wherever.
I agree with aussiewebgirl, We here love it for the ad in depicting the true relationship banks have with customers. I don`t think it will win any points for ANZ. The”BIG 4″ in OZ are the typical David and Goliath, A necessary evil, so to speak, and Barbara depicts it spot on. Well done to the agency for its campaign. Several other ads have done well here, mainly for representing everyday situations and characters. The brand is only a reference when discussing the merits of the ad.
I do not believe this improves ANZ’s status at all. She is funny, typically Australian, who we can easily identify with. I don’t associate her with the ANZ bank in any way – I simply find her amusing.
You misspelt humorous . Also, liking Barbara on Facebook is the equivalent of liking wit and sarcasm not banks since half the people on Facebook are teenagers who have never dealt with banks before. Haha, cult.
I love Barbara… she’s great. But since the ANZ campaign is telling me that I won’t find her at any of their branches, doesn’t that mean their ad has backfired in terms of convincing me to bank with them?
Hi All,
Thank you all for all of your comments.
Without insight from ANZ on results it is difficult to comment on the “tangible increase in mortgages / new accounts opened and potential change in perception”. I agree that all 4 banks are similar and they are battling each other in a competition of who consumers hate the least, however I believe that the exposure gained may have enabled ANZ to become more top of mind at the very least. And whilst individually we may not have changed our views on the bank, it is difficult to determine if this is the view of the wider public. If anyone has statistics / more insight into the campaign results (ie brand perceptions / mortgage increases etc) it would be great to hear from you!
Anna in terms of your comments – thanks for picking up on my spelling mistake! In terms of your Facebook comment I think you are slightly off the mark – with over 9 million Australians on Facebook and the largest growing segment being the over 50s, Facebook is no longer a tool used predominately by those in their teenage years.
Hope to see you all back here soon.
Cheers
Teresa
Hi Teresa, my comment is slightly off track but still relevant to these facebook type campaigns.
It surprises me that when an Agency puts in all this time and effort building a profile and following on Facebook that they don’t take ownership of the URL.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-the-Bank-Manager/232570594986?v=wall
They only need 25 fans to do so.
Do we think this is an oversight or that they don’t plan on running this campaign for long?
Thoughts?
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for leaving your comment.
Not sure which angle to respond at – do you mean the agency hasnt claimed that they set it up or that they havent taken any active steps to manage the audience. I will assume it is the latter.
Whilst the Barbara’s page seems to need little moderation it is a real opportunity for the bank to further engage in discussion and conversation. I still think agencies are finding their feet in the space and therefore some of the obvious things are sometimes missed.
Hope this answers your question, if not re-clarify it for me and then I will try to re-answer.