The Brief

‘Aussie’ is Australia’s biggest home loan broker. To drive retention, they needed to give existing Aussie customers a legitimate and engaging reason to interact with them, months, if not years after they’d brokered their mortgage – i.e. long after the active relationship was over. The best way to kick off the loyalty push was with a direct marketing campaign that targeted their enormous pre-existing customer base, many of whom were still living in the home Aussie helped them get. First with retro game box and instructional booklet was mailed out to their customers, followed by a series of follow-up emails directing them to interact with Aussie online to win some great prizes. The personalised mail piece and follow-up eDMs resonated well with their customers, resulting in one of Aussie’s most successful loyalty pushes, ever.

Creative Execution

Aussie is the brand that perhaps belongs most in Australia Day celebrations but needed a way to help celebrate it. And it doesn’t matter if you’re at the beach or having a BBQ – it wouldn’t be Australia Day without an Esky (cooler box). We created ESKY PACK ATTACK, an online game allowing customers to test their Esky-packing skills for Australia Day. Three weeks before, Aussie mailed customers a retro-styled video game box with an instructional booklet that outlined the promotion, game-play and prizes. Each had a unique code that directed customers to play online. Inspired by the addictive style of Tetris, customers must maneuver items like meat, sausages, beer, and even a watermelon into an Esky. The better you pack in the digital world, the better prize you can win in the real world. The vast majority of Eskies were delivered to winners to help them celebrate Australia Day.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Aussie’s customer base - people who they have brokered a home loan for previously – the majority of which have an ongoing relationship with their bank, not Aussie. The goal was to return Aussie to top-of-mind - so they’d turn to Aussie when refinancing or looking for their next home loan, instead of going directly to their bank. Customers have positive feelings towards ‘Aussie’, however they’re not currently relevant to them. We changed this by linking the brand to the best day of the year – Australia Day - reminding people of the positive experience they have with the brand.

Results

This whole direct campaign was about getting customers to talk to Aussie when they’re ready their next home loan. Aussie’s target attrition rate was 4.22% for the campaign. Esky Pack Attack reduced that even more to 3.42%. Overall we achieved a 19% reduction in customer attrition. Aussie became more top-of-mind in the heads (and hearts) of customers years after Aussie first brokered them a home loan. 21,210 unique entrants from 109,348 direct mail pieces eDMs Open rates averaged 29.4% Click through rates averaged 7.5% 209,560 total entries 64% of unique visitors submitted an entry 90% of competition entrants came back to play again Average time on site was 10 minutes 53 seconds